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A SHORT HISTORY 
OF NEWARK 



A SHORT HISTORY OF 
NEWARK 



BY 

FRANK J. URQUHART 

ii 



NEWARK, N. J. 
BAKER PRINTING COMPANY 

1908 












LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 12 19G3 

Oepyri* r>t intrv 

|fi NO. 




Copyright, 190S 

BY 

Baker Printing Company 



PREFACE 

This work originally appeared in three small 
pamphlets, written at the request of the Newark 
Free Public Library, and published by it. The 
Library desired the work because there was in 
print no brief history of the city which it could 
purchase and hand to the many people — both old 
and young — who were constantly asking for some- 
thing of the kind. It has now been completely 
recast and enlarged. 

More space is given in it to the early history of 
Newark than to the last half century. It is far 
easier for the average citizen to familiarize himself 
with the growth and development of his city during 
the times close to his own than it is to learn of its 
early days, when there were few newspapers and 
periodicals and when people did not write down 
their observations, experiences and ideas with any- 
thing like the frequency that they do now. 

If one would clearly understand how the Newark 
of to-day grew to be what it now is, he must learn 
of its beginnings and of the forces that formed it 
during its first century and a half. 

As one grows more familiar with the early days 



viii A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

of Newark, the more he appreciates the dignity and 
value of a good and honorable name, whether it be 
that of a man and his family or that of a city, 
county, state or country. 

Considerable attention is paid to the Puritan 
colonization movement in New England previous 
to the founding of Newark, and especially to one 
of the foremost figures among our founders after 
his return to Connecticut. This has been done to 
make clearer the influences that moved the settlers 
in coming here, and the character of the settlers 
themselves. History has found much to criticise in 
the Puritans, and also much to admire. Some of 
their more admirable traits were strongly accented 
in the early history of this city, where the last 
attempt was made to found a Puritan theocracy. 
Their social theory time showed to be wrong. 
Their kingdom of God on earth could not endure. 
It failed as had all similar efforts in New England, 
and for the same reasons. It crumbled gradually, 
but out of its ruins grew a better town and one more 
nearly answering the needs of the people. Still, 
the founders of Newark left behind them a high 
ideal for all succeeding generations to strive to 
perpetuate. Their honesty in all their dealings, their 
uprightness of purpose in everything they, under- 



PREFACE. lx 

took and their fearlessness in standing for the right, 
as they saw the right, at whatever cost, are charac- 
teristics which have been many times reproduced in 
succeeding generations. 

There is very little biography in this book, as it 
seemed desirable in so short a history to deal chiefly 
with events and not with persons. 

The town's relation to the government of the 
province is not touched upon, as knowledge of this 
relation does not seem essential to a good under- 
standing of the growth of the town, and to treat 
of it would have added considerably to the size of 
the volume. 

Few dates are given ; for these and for a list of 
places of historic interest in and near Newark, the 
reader is referred to the appendices. 

The illustrations were, with the exception of the 
maps, the work of Edwin S. Fancher and Otto 

Bechtolf. 

Frank J. Urquhart. 

Newark, N. J., August i, 1908. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 

Chapter I. The Story of its Early Days. . . . i-6o 

i A Roadless Wilderness 4 

2 Earliest Settlements 4 

3 Puritan Movement 

4 The Purpose of the Puritans I0 

5 Their Reasons for Settling in New Jersey n 

6 Like the Children of Israel J 5 

7 A Bargain in Land 

8 ,Wealth of Settlers I9 

9 The Four Texts 22 

io Newark the Last Theocracy of Puritans 23 

11 The New Jersey Indians 2 5 

12 The First Church a Fortress 26 

13 The Church a Precious Thing 28 

14 The Church as a Meeting House 29 

15 Drums Were very Useful 2 9 

16 Filling in the Meadows 32 

17 The Newark Settlers' Thanksgiving Hymn 33 

18 The Settlers Good Workmen 34 

19 Newark Ten Years Old 3° 

20 The First Schoolmaster 37 

21 Forming New Settlements 39 

22 Roads Began as Footpaths •••• 39 

23 The First Industry 4 ° 

24 Treat Returns to Connecticut 4* 

25 Treat in Battle 42 

26 Treat as Governor • 43 

27 Settlers were Able Men 45 

28 Newark, Yale and Princeton 45 

29 Military Park 49 

30 Newark in 1774 

31 In the War for Independence 52 

32 Washington in Newark 54 



xii A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

Page 

33 British Outrages 55 

34 The Heritage of Other Days 58 

35 Before 1776 63 

Chapter II. The Story of its Awakening. 61-86 

36 Newark's Long Sleep 64 

37 Newark the Village in 1800 65 

38 The Old Tavern and Southern Trade 68 

39 The Stage Coach 69 

40 Broad Street in 1800 70 

41 High Street and Beyond in 1800 72 

42 A Farm in Mulberry Street in 1815 73 

43 Quiet Sundays in Old Newark 74 

44 Newark Begins to Make Things 75 

45 Making Boots and Shoes 76 

46 An Early Free School .' 76 

47 Newark a Village of Shoemakers 77 

48 The Stone Quarries 78 

49 Flour Mills and Saw Mills ' 79 

50 Iron Foundries ; Tool Making 79 

51 Seth Boyden, Inventor 80 

52 Boyden a Many Sided Genius 81 

53 Coaches, Coach Lace, Saddlery 82 

54 Hats, Jewelry, Beer 82 

55 Power from Water and from Animals 83 

56 Ships, Whaling ; the Canal 83 

57 Eminent Men in Newark 84 

58 Newark Awake 85 

59 Keeping Awake 86 

Chapter III. The Story of its Prosperity. 87-129 

60 Newark Becomes a City; 1836 90 

61 The First Railroad 91 

62 The Young City Thrives 93 

63 Hard Times of 1837 96 

64 A Time of Prosperity ; 1849 97 

65 How They Fought Fires 97 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii 

Page 

66 The Old Hand Engines 98 

67 The Great Fire of 1836 99 

68 The First Steam Fire Engines 100 

69 One of the First Schools 100 

70 More Schools 102 

71 The Board of Education 103 

72 Overcoming an Old Idea 103 

72, When the Passaic was Beautiful 104 

74 Cockloft Hall 105 

75 On the Eve of Civil War 108 

76 A Great Public Meeting in 

77 Newark's Southern Trade 112 

78 Going to the Front 113 

79 Camp Frelinghuysen 114 

80 War's Serious Side 115 

81 General Kearny 115 

82 The First Horse Car Line 117 

83 Newark's Drinking Water 118 

84 Old Wells and Reservoirs 118 

85 The Present Supply of Water 119 

86 Street Lighting 120 

87 The First Gas Light 121 

88 Edison in Newark 121 

89 Edward Weston 123 

90 Making Electric Lighting Possible 123 

91 Newark's Proud Record 124 

92 The City of the Future 124 

93 The Era of the Subway 126 

94 Meadow Improvement 127 

95 A Cleaner and Prettier City 128 

96 The Greater Newark 128 

Some of the Leading Events in the History 

of Newark 131-138 

Historic Spots in Newark i39 -I 5 I 

Index i53- T 58 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE. 

Statue of Puritan in Fairmount Cemetery 2 

Henry Hudson exploring Newark Bay, 1609. ... 5 

Map showing principal settlements from Maine to 
the Delaware at time of Newark's settlement, 
1666 9 

Map made by the Settlers to show distribution of 

Home Lots 17 

Going to church in the infant settlement 27 

A "Burning Day'' in the settlement 31 

Gathering of Patriots at County Court House 

1774 5i 

Trinity Church a Soldiers' Hospital — 1776 53 

The Outrage upon Joseph Hedden — January, 

1780 57 

A Skirmish at the "Four Corners ;" with a 

modern background 59 

Seth Boy den, 1798- 1870. From, a bust in the 

Library 62 

Looking East from Mulberry street — 1800 67 

In Stage Coach Days at Market and Broad streets 71 

Newark from the Passaic by Night. An im- 
pression 88 

Broad street looking South from Market — 1845. • I01 
"Lower Green" or "Military Common," now 

known as Military Park — 1845 io 7 



THE STORY OF ITS 
EARLY DAYS 




STATUE OF PURITAN 
IN FAIRMOUNT CEMETERY 



CHAPTER I. 
THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS 

Newark is over two hundred and forty years old. 
In 19 1 6 it will celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of its birth. The people who founded 
it came from four different towns in Connecticut. 
They were English born or of English parentage. 
Their leader was Robert Treat. He should have a 
monument erected to his memory, for he was a 
remarkable man, a resourceful organizer, and the 
guiding force of the little colony during its earliest 
years. Treat came to Elizabethtown in 1665, a few 
months after it was founded. There he saw 
Governor Carteret, who had come from England 
to take charge of all the upper half of New Jersey. 
The Governor was anxious to get settlers. 

Except for a few small settlements on the Jersey 
shores of the Delaware and Hudson rivers, what 
we now know as New Jersey was then a wilderness, 
inhabited only by a few hundred Indians and by 
wild animals and birds. On the Delaware the towns 
were little more than forts, for the white people 
sometimes fought each other there, and fierce and 



4 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

warlike Indians lived but a short distance away in 
what is now Pennsylvania. 

i. A Roadless Wilderness. 

From the Hudson to the Delaware there were 
no roads for white men; nothing except narrow 
Indian paths from the hills to the big rivers and the 
salt water, and the trails of deer, bear and wolves 
leading to the springs where animals came to drink. 
Some of the Indian paths were well worn and quite 
easy to follow. They ran from the sea shore or from 
the Hudson, Passaic or Raritan rivers over the 
Orange mountains and there joined other paths that 
led on across the country to points high up on the 
Delaware. The Indians had use for these paths 
because many lived near the Delaware in winter 
and in the summer camped by the sea. When 
Newark's first settlers came they found huge piles 
of oyster, clam and other shells along the shore, 
which showed very plainly that one of the reasons 
why Indians traveled so far across the country was 
to get fish to eat after living all winter chiefly on 
game and Indian corn. 

2. Earliest Settlements. 

The Dutch, until a year before Newark was 
founded, had owned for about forty years much of 
the land on both sides of the lower Hudson. There 




$ 



6 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

was a tiny village at Bergen Point; and there were 
a few farms here and there where Jersey City, 
Hoboken and Hackensack now are. A few Dutch- 
men and their families had also made small farms 
in the upper Passaic valley, all the way up to what 
are now Paterson and Little Falls, and even further 
on. A few more were scattered along the lower 
Hackensack. The Indians came to these farm 
houses to sell the skins of animals they killed. The 
skins were then taken to New York City, which was 
called by the red men Manhattan, and by the 
Dutchmen New Amsterdam. There the skins were 
sold by the farmers and traders to the Dutch West 
India Company, who packed them in great bundles, 
put them in the holds of clumsy little ships and 
carried them to Holland. 

It was the Dutch West India Company that 
induced people to come from the old world and live 
in New York and New Jersey, to gather skins from 
the Indians, and make farms. The Dutch thought 
that all the land along the Hudson was very 
valuable, and to-day we understand readily enough 
how far-seeing they were. 

Thirty-four years before Newark was founded 
the West India Company bought all of Staten 
Island, and what is now Jersey City and Hoboken 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 



for $10,400. They thought this a great deal of 
money then, little as it seems to us now when we 
recall that Staten Island alone is to-day worth many, 
many millions. The Dutchmen who sold Hoboken, 
Jersey City and Staten Island to the West India 
Company bought it from the Indians for a few 
coats, hats, guns and groceries. 

The English had for some time wished to hold 
all this fine country, and lawyers and others in 
London said that this ground belonged to them. 
At last, soldiers came from England and took 
Manhattan by force, and when they captured the 
city, the entire country which lay between Connecti- 
cut 'and New Jersey, including all of New Jersey, 
became theirs. This happened in 1664, and put an 
end to Dutch rule here. Many of the Dutch farmers 
and traders, however, stayed on their farms in spite 
of the change of government. The descendants of 
some of them are living to this day in Jersey cities 
and towns on the very land where their forefathers 
settled over two centuries ago. 

Elizabethtown had only four or five houses when 
Robert Treat, the man sent out from Connecticut 
to find a settling place for the Newark colony, saw it 
in 1 665. Philadelphia was an Indian village ; Trenton 
was not founded until sixteen years after; New 



8 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

York was not as large as Belleville is to-day; and 
children who were born among the Pilgrim Fathers 
at Plymouth, Massachusetts, soon after their coming 
in 1620 — those who had survived the hardships of 
the early days — were just in the prime of life. 

Robert Treat had two other men with him when 
he came from Connecticut to look for a place for a 
settlement. The three were sent out by people 
living in the four towns of Milford, Branford, New 
Haven and Guilford. They first went in boats to 
the Delaware river, examined the country along its 
banks and came near choosing for their new settle- 
ment the ground on which Burlington, New Jersey, 
now stands. But they made up their minds that it 
was too far from the old home in Connecticut and 
from New York, then the only strong English 
settlement for hundreds of miles along the coast. 
On the Delaware, also, they would have had Indians 
all around them and few white people near. They 
would have been almost alone in a great wilderness. 

3. The Puritan Movement. 

It is not easy for us to-day to understand how 
important the church was to the people then. 
The Newark settlers were Puritans like most of the 
people in New England at that time. Their towns 
were meant to be Kingdoms of God on earth. In 




jY/l/NEr To THE DELAWARE' 
AT Tfl£ Tf/7£r °/* NEWARK^* 



io A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 



England the Puritans saw much wickedness and 
much of what we call graft among men in high 
places, and they spoke out against it all. They 
would not remain silent, for they believed God 
wanted them to try to put down all evil. They 
were sent to prison for saying what they thought, 
and were sometimes forbidden to hold their own 
religious services. Their houses were quite often 
destroyed and now and then they were beaten and 
driven from their homes. Reformers of to-day 
believe that the country can be made better if 
people will go to the polls and vote for good men 
for office and for better law. In the time of the 
Puritans in England, there was little voting, for 
kings and the nobility did about as they chose. So 
the Puritans, who were the reformers of their time, 
looked to religion and their church as the guides 
that would lead their country into a better and 
truer way of living. When they were not allowed 
to have their own churches and to worship and 
preach and talk reforms in their own way in 
England, they made up their minds to go to some 
country where they could do as they thought right. 
Some of them went to Holland. 

4. The Purpose of the Puritans. 
But this was not all that the Puritans wished for. 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. n 



They longed for a country of their own, where they 
could govern themselves in all things by the teach- 
ings of their church. So some of them sailed away 
for America and settled in Plymouth. Other ships 
followed and other towns grew up near Plymouth, 
each with its church as its centre, as the fountain 
from which all the town's life flowed. As time 
went on, some of the people in these earliest settle- 
ments found that they did not agree with the rest 
about the town's government or its religion. When 
they could not have their way, they went off by 
themselves and started a town of their own. There 
was plenty of unoccupied land; they could buy all 
they wished from the Indians for very little money, 
and they soon had a new town established. Nearly 
every new town that the Puritans founded was a 
little further south and west than any of those built 
before it, so that by the time the little body of 
Puritans who were to make Newark, got into their 
boats at New Haven and started down Long Island 
Sound there was a fringe of little settlements along 
the seashore all the way from Boston and Plymouth 
to the Connecticut river. 

5. Their Reasons for Settling in New Jersey. 

The Newark men went much further away from 
the other Puritans than any other town builders 



12 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

had gone before. There were at least two reasons 
for this : First, they wished to keep near the sea- 
shore; they did not dare settle in the interior for 
fear of Indians; and they could find no place that 
suited them on the New England coast that was 
not taken already or was not too near other settle- 
ments or too near large tribes of Indians. Second, 
as they went down the coast to find what they 
wanted, they had to go beyond what is now New 
York State because almost the only white people 
in it were Dutch with whom they had been very 
nearly at war two or three years before. 

There was perhaps still a third reason for their 
coming to New Jersey. When the first Puritans 
came over in the Mayflower they did not intend to 
land on the bleak New England coast. They 
planned to make their homes on the banks of the 
Delaware. But as the Mayflower drew near the 
shores of this continent the winds drove her far up 
the coast. When the Puritans found themselves in 
Massachusetts Bay they were much disappointed 
and turned southward again, once more trying to 
reach the Delaware. But the winds were still 
against them. They never saw the "promised land" 
on the Delaware of which they had dreamed, and of 
which extravagant praise had been written by men 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 13 

who sought to get rich Englishmen to buy it from 
the Indians. The Mayflower was again beaten back 
around Cape Cod, and the Puritans, at last feeling 
that God meant them to stay where they were, went 
ashore and founded Plymouth. It may have been 
that the Newark settlers, remembering that forty 
years before, the first Puritan immigrants had 
wished to set up their new home on the Delaware, 
thought they would themselves carry out the old 
plan. 

For over twenty years before Newark was 
founded English adventurers had often visited the 
shores of what is now New Jersey, and had sent or 
taken home enthusiastic accounts of what they had 
seen. Their accounts were often highly colored. 
They tried to make these new lands as attractive as 
possible to induce settlers to come out from the 
mother country. One of these accounts is about 
the Jersey side of the Delaware. It was written by 
Master Evelyn in a letter to an English nobleman, 
was printed and, it is believed, quite widely circu- 
lated. It may have been seen by some of the men 
who were to found Newark, and its glowing narra- 
tive might readily have induced them to explore 
the Delaware river region. It is easy to see that the 
writer was more anxious to bring settlers to the 



i 4 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

country that he describes than he was to give a 
faithful description. Part of the letter is as follows : 
"I saw there an infinite quantity of bustards, 
swans, geese and fowl, covering the shoares as 
within the like of a multitude of pigeons, and store 
of turkies, of which I tried one to weigh forty and 
sixe pounds. There is much variety and plenty of 
delicate fresh and sea-fish, and shell-fish, and whales 
or grampus; elks, deere that bring three young at 
a time, and the woods bestrewed many months with 
chestnuts, wallnuts and mast of several sorts to feed 
them and the hogs that would increase exceedingly. 
There the barren grounds have four kinds of grapes 
and many mulberries with ash, elms and the tallest 
and greatest pines and pitch trees that I have seen. 
There are cedars, and cypresse and sassafras, with 
wilde fruits, pears, wilde berries, pine apples and the 
dainty parsemenas [persimmons]. And there is no 
question but what almonds and other fruits of Spain 
will prosper, as in Virginia; And (which is a good 
comfort) in four and twenty hours you may send 
or goe by sea to New England or Virginia, with a 
faire winde. You may have cattle, and from the 
Indians two thousand bushels of corn at twelve 
pence a bushel, so as victuals are there cheaper and 
better than can be transported. 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 15 

"If my lord will bring with him three hundred 
men or more, there is no doubt but that he may doe 
very well and grow rich, for it is a most pure health- 
full air, and such pure, wholesome springs, rivers 
and waters, as delightfull as can be seen, with so 
many varities of severall flowers, trees and forests 
for swine, so many fair risings and prospects, all 
green and verdant, and Maryland a good friend and 
neighbour, in four and twenty hours, ready to com- 
fort and supply." 

6. Like the Children of Israel. 
No doubt the Newark pioneers thought a long 
time, and read their Bibles, and prayed for advice 
from Heaven, before they made up their minds just 
where they would settle. The Puritans never took 
any important step without asking Divine aid. 
They did not try to establish their church where 
they thought God did not wish it to be. They felt 
that in coming to this wild country of America they 
were doing very much as the children of Israel had 
done, as described in the Old Testament, and were 
finding a new home, their Land of Canaan, under 
God's guidance. They felt that they were being 
watched over and cared for in very much the same 
way as were the Hebrews in their long and weary 
journey from Egypt. 



16 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

7. A Bargain in Land. 

After a conference with Governor Carteret at 
Elizabethtown, Treat and his companions returned 
to Connecticut, and in the following spring the 
settlers came. The land they chose included a large 
part of what is now Essex County, and for it they 
gave goods which were worth about $750. The 
purchase of the land from the Indians was arranged 
by Samuel Edsall, an English trader who spoke the 
Indian dialects. A year or so before, Edsall had 
started a little settlement at Constable Hook. The 
people there were nearly all Dutch. 

Just think what this purchase means! To-day 
you would find it hard to buy a piece of ground 
anywhere in the city, twenty-five feet front and 
extending back fifty or one hundred feet, for twice 
the sum the settlers paid the Indians for the whole 
town. In the centre of the city you would have to 
pay very much more for such a lot. Early in 1904 a 
lot was sold on one of the corners of Broad street 
not far from Market, thirty-eight feet wide on 
Broad street and about one hundred feet deep on 
Bank street, for $400,000. Write these figures 
down above those representing what the Indians got 
for the whole town and you may begin to realize 
how wonderfully Newark has grown. Other Broad 



18 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

street lots have sold for even higher prices during 
the last four years. 

The settlers did not pay for the land in money, 
but in goods. Here is a list of the articles which 
the Indian Perro and his family, who claimed to 
own the land, received for it : "Fifty double hands 
of powder, one hundred bars of lead, twenty axes, 
twenty coats, ten guns, twenty pistols, ten kettles, 
ten swords, four blankets, four barrels of beer, ten 
pairs of breeches, fifty knives, twenty hoes, eight 
hundred and fifty fathoms of wampum, two ankers 
of liquors and three trooper's coats." 

This payment was not made until after the settlers 
had been here over a year, as many of the families 
that had agreed to come did not arrive from 
Connecticut until about that time. When the first 
settlers landed, a bill of sale, including the price to 
be given, was agreed on, but apparently nothing 
was paid to the Indians then. There seems to have 
been an understanding on the part of the settlers 
that Governor Carteret was to pay the Indians for 
the land Newark was to be built on; but he does 
not appear to have done so. All they got, probably, 
was the strange collection of things mentioned 
above. Later, additional tracts were purchased. 
One extended' from the western boundary of the 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 19 

first tract to the foot of the Watchung mountains, 
as the Orange mountains were then called. This 
was owned by two Indians named Winnocksop and 
Shenoctos, and they were content to part with it for 
"two guns, three coats and thirteen kans of Rum," 
to quote the bill of sale. 

It should be a source of honest pride to every 
resident of this city and of all New Jersey, that 
every foot of ground within the limits of the State 
was purchased from the Indians, and not taken by 
force or stolen. The Newark founders were among 
the first to establish this enviable record and their 
example was scrupulously followed by all who after- 
ward made settlements in New Jersey. Few of the 
original States can lay claim to a like record of just 
and honorable dealing with the red men. 

8. Wealth of Settlers. 

In all the company there were money and goods 
to the value of about $64,000, an average for each 
of the thirty families of about $2,000. They 
profited by the sad experiences of the Plymouth 
pioneers of over forty years before, who suffered 
much because they settled in a new country with 
too little money, food and clothing. The Newark 
settlers made sure that there was to be no "starving 
time" in their New Jersey town. 



20 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

Many small waterways ran hither and thither 
about the little village of Newark. A streamlet 
splashed its way down what is now Market street 
from a pond near the southeast corner of Market and 
Halsey streets. This stream fed a second and 
smaller pond below, just back of the southwest 
corner of Market and Broad streets. Traces of 
these old ponds were found only a few years ago 
when excavations were made for some of the taller 
buildings on the south side of Market street between 
Broad and Halsey. The stream wound its way 
clown into the marshes a little below where the 
Market street station of the Pennsylvania railroad 
is located at the present time. 

It is probable that this Market street waterway 
was once much more than a streamlet. In the 
summer of 1908, while workmen were digging 
deep into the soil near the corner of Market and 
Beaver streets, they struck into an area of the finest 
of sand of such a character as to indicate that at 
some period, very long ago, the ground there had 
been a part of the stream's bed. 

Other little streams came down the hillside west 
of the village. One of them ran a little north of 
the present line of Clay street. This came to be 
called Mill Brook, for on it the settlers' corn was 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 21 

ground for many years. Others found their way 
to the marshes south of Market street. One ran 
through Lincoln park, then little better than a marsh, 
and one right where the new City Hall now stands. 

Out of the marshes near where the Pennsylvania 
railroad now is, rose a long bluff which faced the 
river and followed its curves all the Avay up to what 
is now Belleville. Most of this bluff was leveled 
away as streets were extended and buildings rose; 
but traces of it are still to be seen, at Mt. Pleasant 
Cemetery, for instance. Below the bluff and 
between it and the river was a stretch of marsh. 

The woods about the village abounded in chestnut, 
hickory, elm, birch, black and white ash, tulip, 
sycamore, oak and the bitter and sweet gum. The 
oak the settlers used largely for the frames of their 
houses, when the day of log huts was over. Many 
trees were split for fence-rails ; many were cut down 
and burned to clear the land for planting, and many 
more for firewood. The bitter gum was used for 
floors. There was a dense cedar forest to the north- 
east of Newark on the Hackensack Meadows, and 
there were thick woods in other places near by; 
but the earlier Newark historians say that the little 
town was not by any means closely shut in by 
forests. As the country was quite open the labor of 



22 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

making farms was much less than it would have 
been had the ground been covered with trees. The 
centre of the settlement was at what is now the 
junction of Market and Broad streets. It must have 
been a pretty village, after the first year or two, 
when vines and creepers grew over the log houses 
and the roughness of the clearing began to disappear. 

9. The Four Texts. 

When they decided to come to Newark the 
founders fixed upon four verses from the Old 
Testament by means of which they planned to frame 
the whole upbuilding of their town. They were the 
following : 

And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their 
governor shall proceed from the midst of them. 
Jeremiah, xxx, 21. 

Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, 
whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from 
among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee; 
thou may est not set a stranger over thee, which is 
not thy brother. Deuteronomy, xvii, 15. 

Take you wise men, and understanding, and 
known among your tribes, and I will make them 
rulers over you. Deuteronomy, i, 13. 

Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people 
able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 23 



covetonsness; and place such over them, to be 
rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers 
of fifties, and rulers of tens. Exodus, xviii, 21. 

They wished the town to be a little Kingdom of 
God on Earth. If they had followed out the texts 
they chose they would have had a king and would 
have paid attention to no other government except 
their own. All this was very much as the other 
Puritans in New England had planned to do. 
10. Newark the Last Theocracy of Puritans. 
One of the most important things to be remem- 
bered about this story of the early days of Newark 
is that the men who made it were the last of the 
Puritans to try to build up a Kingdom of God on 
this continent, and that the town of Newark was the 
final effort of the Puritans in that direction. 

For a little while after Newark was started it was 
governed by Robert Treat, by the pastor, the Rev. 
Abraham Pierson, and by two or three other leading 
men. But it was not long before all the men in the 
town, save the servants, were called together to 
consider the town's business. This gathering was 
a town meeting, and for more than a century and a 
half from that time the place was governed through 
town meetings. At first all grown men in the town 
save servants could go to these meetings and vote 



24 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

on everything that was to be done. Soon it was 
decided that only those who owned land in the town 
should be allowed to vote. 

While the pastor and the others referred to in the 
last paragraph, directed the affairs of the settlement 
in the beginning, there were also a captain, two 
lieutenants and two or more sergeants whose duty 
it was to carry out their orders as well as to stand 
ready to direct the settlers if it should be necessary 
for the latter to defend themselves against the 
attack of Indians or hostile white men. These 
military officers formed the only police the early 
English colonists had and they were very useful 
in many ways other than in those that fall to the lot 
of guardians of the peace to-day. Gradually, with 
the lessening fear of Indian attacks, and with the 
perfection of town organization, the need of the 
military officers disappeared. Robert Treat was 
the first captain. 

In less than a year after settlement the town meet- 
ing began to choose officers to attend to the business 
of the town. One of the first chosen was a collector 
of taxes. Next they chose a treasurer, then survey- 
ors. Two magistrates were soon chosen, and one of 
them was Captain Treat. Every year they chose 
new men for these places or elected the old ones 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 25 

again, and at nearly every town meeting they found 
that new kinds of officers were needed. Three years 
after the settlement five selectmen were chosen to 
have general charge of town affairs. 

11. The New Jersey Indians. 

None of the New Jersey Indians ever made 
serious trouble for the settlers. These Indians were 
of the Lenni Lenape tribe, who long before the 
white men came are believed to have been beaten in 
battle by the fiercer and more powerful tribes from 
what are now Pennsylvania and New York. The 
Lenni Lenape seem never to have made war after 
that early conflict with their neighbors. 

The New Jersey Indians called what is now this 
State, "Scheyichbi." One of their largest villages 
was at what is now Hackensack, and their greatest 
chief at the time the Newark founders arrived was a 
very old man, called Oraton. His name has been 
preserved here by the street named after him. 
Oraton seems to have been a wise and just Indian, 
and seems to have resembled the kindly and broad- 
minded Massasoit with whom the Pilgrim Fathers 
at Plymouth had such pleasant dealings. 

Some time before the War for Independence the 
surviving Indians were gathered together from all 
parts of what is now the State, and placed upon a 



26 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

reservation of one thousand acres in Burlington 
county. There they became known as the "Edge 
Pillocks." In 1 80 1 they joined the survivors of the 
Mohicans on the latter's reservation in New York 
State. Later both the Lenni Lenape and the 
Mohicans removed to Michigan. In 1832 there were 
but forty of the Lenni Lenape living. It seems that 
one Indian and his squaw refused to leave this State 
when the others went to join the Mohicans. Their 
daughter, known as "Indian Ann," lived to a great 
age. She died in 1894 near Mount Holly, and was 
known as the "Last of the Lenni Lenape." 

12. The First Church a Fortress. 
While they were busy with their own houses the 
people were also planning their church, and built 
it as soon as possible. It stood on Broad street about 
where Branford place now begins, nearly opposite 
the present First Presbyterian Church. They put on 
it a cupola. In this two men stood with loaded guns, 
during the religious services, to watch for hostile 
Indians. There were also flankers at two of the 
diagonally opposite corners. These flankers were 
little towers, and a man on watch in one of them 
could look along two sides of the building, so that 
from the two flankers all four sides could be 
watched. Every Sunday a fourth of all the men 







«®M 



.- 



28 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

carried guns to church, and from these were chosen, 
each week, one to watch from the church cupola and 
two others to "ward," as they called it, standing 
in the flankers. 

13. The Church a Precious Thing. 

To the settlers of our city the church was the 
most precious thing they had. All the people went 
to it. In fact for a few years they did not let people 
come to live among them unless they were not only 
willing to go to church, but liked to go, and to the 
kind of church the settlers believed in. This, of 
course, meant that the minister was one of the lead- 
ing men. He was not the ruler of the village, for it 
had no rulers, although the people often gave a few 
men great power. Still, the ministers of the church 
had much to do with making the town. The first 
minister is believed to have named it, calling it 
Newark after Newark on the river Trent in England 
where he was ordained to preach. 

The First Church of Newark, as it was called for 
many years, is the oldest fully organized church 
congregation in all of what is now New Jersey. 
There were a few Swedish churches on the Dela- 
ware which were started before that in Newark, but 
they were all on the Pennsylvania side of the river. 
There were also a few Dutch churches, but they had 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 29 

a short existence. The First Dutch Church of 
Bergen, which was started several years before 
Newark was founded, had no regular minister, and 
it w r as not completely organized until many years 
after 1666. 

Newark's first church, that is the church organiza- 
tion, is really older than the town itself by about 
twenty years, for it was founded in Branford, 
Connecticut, and when the Branford people removed 
to Newark they brought with them their entire 
church organization, leaving very few 7 of the church 
members behind. The church organization there- 
fore is now more than two hundred and fifty years 
old from its foundation to the present. 

14. The Church as a Meeting House. 

The first Newark church was used on Sundays, 
just as w r e use ours, for religious purposes; but on 
week days it was a gathering place for all public 
assemblies. They did not call it a church but a 
"meeting house," just as many people in New 
England speak of their churches to this day. All 
their meetings were religious. They never gathered 
together without praying to God to guide them in 
whatsoever they had to do. 

15. Drums were very Useful. 

During the first few years, when the settlers were 



30 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

not quite sure of the Indians, the town meeting was 
called together by the beating of drums ; the lieuten- 
ants doing the drumming. Whenever Indians 
seemed to be plotting trouble, drums were sounded 
and the people hurried to the church. 

On certain days the able bodied men of the town 
had to give up their time to work for the common 
good, building roadways, clearing the countryside 
of brush and trees, laying drains and doing all the 
other things that must be done to make a new town 
in a wilderness attractive and comfortable. The 
underbrush was often cleared by burning. A certain 
tract was set off for the purpose; the men gathered 
at the roll of drums and went to this tract. There 
they applied the torch if the winds were favorable, 
and watched to see that the fire did not shift and 
that sparks were not carried to their houses. 

On the days when the men assembled to do the 
town's work, one lieutenant took up his position at 
the lower end of the town, on what is now Broad 
street, near Hill and Green streets, while the other 
started from the neighborhood of Bridge street, 
or a little below. The lieutenants, beating their 
drums, proceeded toward the centre of the town, 
until they met where the little church stood, and the 
men came out of their homes and followed after. 



2,2 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

At times when the settlers feared attacks by the 
Indians, strict watch was kept every night. 

Three men, chosen by one of the sergeants, 
gathered at some house, one standing watch outside 
while the others slept inside. They relieved each 
other through the night and a little before daybreak 
all three went out and walked about the town to 
see that all was well. Half an hour after daybreak 
they beat drums to let the village know that another 
night had passed safely. Their drum beat also told 
the settlers it was time to get up. 

It was not long after the village was founded 
before one of the first comers died, and was laid to 
rest behind the little church. Thus was started the 
Old Burying Ground, used for over 200 years. The 
bones of the early settlers were removed from it 
less than twenty years ago and placed in a large 
vault in Fairmount Cemetery. Over the vault rises 
a monument on which are inscriptions telling of the 
men and women whose remains lie beneath. The 
small cut at the beginning of this chapter is from 
the statue of a Puritan pioneer which forms a part 
of this monument. 

16. Filling in the Meadows. 

In the laying of drains some of the men provided 
pipe sections made from gum trees and others laid 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 33 

them down. Thus many a little plot was trans- 
formed into dry ground from a marsh or quagmire. 
The towns in Connecticut from which the settlers 
came had marshes in them or near them, so, being 
used to swamps in their former homes the many 
square miles of Newark meadows did not deter them 
from coming here. The filling in of the marshes 
of Newark has thus been going on for nearly two 
hundred and fifty years. It must go on for many 
years more if all are to be filled. It was a tremen- 
dous task the settlers had before them. Surely they 
did not dream the time would ever come when the 
many thousand acres of solid earth we now see 
would be made out of the swamps. 

The settlers seem never to have regretted coming 
here. There was much hard work to be done, but 
they seem to have rejoiced in it. Like the Puritans 
of Plymouth, they held their days of Thanksgiving. 
The writer has tried to express in the following 
hymn something of the spirit with which they were 
animated on such occasions : 
17. The Newark Settlers' Thanksgiving Hymn. 

Here in a pleasant wilderness, Thy children, Lord, abide, 
And turn to Thee with thankfulness in this November-tide. 
Almighty God, Thy goodness grows 
More seemly, as Thou dost expose 
Thy purpose to our wondering eyes, 
Led hitherward by Thee. 



34 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

Here by Passaak's gentle flow our humble homes we rear; 
Unchafed by want, unsought by woe, we have no cause for 

fear. 
The painted savage peaceful prowls, 
The lurking wolf unheeded growls; 
With steadfastness we hold our way, 
Uplifted, Lord, by Thee. 

With pious zeal our task we took, and soon the virgin soil 
By coppice edge, by whimpering brook, hath blest our 

sober toil. 
Our log-built homes are filled with store 
From fruitful field, from wood and shore; 
Our hearts are filled with tuneful joy, 
With thankful hymns to Thee. 

18. The Settlers Good Workmen. 

The settlers were good workmen and they trimmed 
the logs for their first houses very straight with 
their axes. They hewed them into square timbers, 
with surfaces so even and smooth that in some cases 
it was hard to be sure that they were not sawed. 
We learn this from men who many years ago saw 
the ruins of these old houses. 

In the centre of the spot on which a house was 
to stand, they dug a hole large enough to hold the 
winter store of food. This was the cellar and was 
reached through a trap door in the floor. Each 
house had a ground floor and an attic, with a roof 
which came down so low at the eaves that a tall 
man could reach up and take hold of it. The first 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 35 

floor was usually made into one big room — kitchen, 
dining room, living room and parlor, all in one, with 
a tireplace large enough to take in a backlog eight 
feet long. The logs were often hauled into the 
house by a horse, the horse being driven in at one 
door and out at another. The furniture was very 
simple and strong, and there was not much of it. 
The table at which the family ate its meals was 
sometimes so made that when a meal was over it 
could be converted into a large seat and pushed 
back against the wall or forward close to the fire- 
place. 

A dye pot in which to make a dye out of roots to 
color their cloth, was found in almost every house. 
The pot was cut out of a gum tree log. The gum 
tree decays at the centre and it is easy to cut out 
the decayed part and put a wooden plug in one end 
for a bottom. A piece of wood was fitted into the 
top to serve as a cover and then the whole thing 
formed a seat which stood at one corner of the 
fireplace. 

It took six months or longer to make a suit of 
clothes, for threads had to be spun from flax or 
wool, and then woven into cloth, then dyed. The 
settlers grew their own flax, and the wool came 
from sheep which soon dotted the hillside, where 



36 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

High street now is, all the way from William street 
to St. Michael's Hospital. For much more than a 
hundred years these settlers, no matter how well off 
they were, had little but homespun to wear. 

Boots and shoes were made by a traveling cobbler. 
He passed through town once every year or two, 
stopping with each family until he made boots and 
shoes for all in the household, from master to 
servants. The family got ready for him by tanning 
the skins of the cattle they killed for food. 

19. Newark Ten Years Old. 

Ten years after the settlers landed they had a 
complete little town with a substantial church, an 
inn or tavern, a good grist mill, and a staunch boat 
which carried their produce to Elizabethtown and 
New York and brought back their purchases. Broad 
street was fairly well laid out as far down as Clinton 
avenue and as far up as Orange street. A few 
more families had come from Connecticut and the 
town was prosperous in a humble way. It had 
passed through the early period of struggle without 
great hardship. 

The settlers loved their town, for it was peaceful 
and they were contented in it. They kept it neat and 
clean and travelers often spoke of it as a very pretty 
village. Nearly every house had a row of beehives 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 37 

at the rear. In the summer there were great masses 
of roses, from which the bees gathered honey, grow- 
ing up the sides of the houses and sometimes on to 
the roof. 

It was several years before the settlers had a store. 
Now and then a settler filled a boat with the produce 
of his farm and sailed with it to New York, where 
he bartered his fruit, vegetables, grain, beef, chickens 
and ham, for such articles as he needed. He took 
in exchange for his goods, sugar, tea, coffee, nails, 
hinges, hammers, axes and other articles which he 
and his fellow settlers could not grow or make. 
When a settler made a trip of this kind he usually 
took also the goods of some of his neighbors to 
exchange. Sometimes a settler would bring home 
from New York more things than he and his family 
needed, and these he would dispose of to the people 
living near him. Gradually a few of the settlers got 
into the way of keeping in their houses small 
quantities of nails, knives, saws, and other useful 
tools, together with groceries, which they sold or 
exchanged for other things they wanted. Thus, the 
community's first stores were started. 

20. The First Schoolmaster. 

The town was ten years old before the settlers 
were ready to establish a school, and during those 



38 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

first ten years children learned their letters at their 
mothers' knees, or did not learn them at all. John 
Catlin was the first schoolmaster, and only those 
children whose parents were able to pay for their 
schooling could attend his school. Free public 
schools as we know them did not come for nearly 
a century and a half. 

In very early days a market place was set up at 
the foot of what is now Washington Park. The 
stream already described as flowing down Market 
street, ran down the hillside where the County 
Court House now stands, and a watering place was 
agreed on at the point where Springfield avenue and 
Market street now meet. The first tannery was also 
started near here, on Market street, near the begin- 
ning of Springfield avenue. 

There was very little social life in those first years. 
The church was the chief thing in all men's minds, 
and when the people were not listening to sermons 
and prayers in the meeting house or gathered there 
to talk with each other about the making of their 
town, they were hard at work in field and forest, 
or in their beds. If anybody entertained young 
folks at his house after nine o'clock at night he was 
liable to a fine, except on special occasions, when 
permission must be had from one of the town 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 39 

officers. Boys and girls loved fun then as always, 
and they gave their grave parents and grandparents 
so much trouble that the town actually had to 
appoint a man to look after them and see that they 
behaved properly during the church service. This 
meant that this man must not only see to it that 
they sat quietly during the two-hour sermon, but 
must also be sure they were all in church and not 
sailing toy boats on the river, fishing in the brooks, 
or engaged in some other pastime. 

21. Forming New Settlements. 

When the town was started every settler who 
came had a right to two pieces of land, one in the 
centre of the settlement and the other on the out- 
skirts. The first piece was called the settler's town 
lot and the other the farm, or pasture, or wood-lot. 
As the boys and girls grew up and became men and 
women and got married, they often went away to 
the farm lots of their fathers or to other outlying 
tracts that the town voted to give or sell them. In 
this way houses soon sprang up in what are now 
called the Oranges, in Irvington, ■ Belleville and 
Bloomfield, and in other places. 

22. Roads Began as Foot-paths. 

The people who went into the countryside to live 
constantly traveled back and forth to the parent 



4 o A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

town. Newark was for many years the only place 
where there were stores. Many came also on 
Sundays to the church, sometimes two or three on 
one horse. In this way were opened the roads we 
call avenues, along which now whiz trolley cars and 
automobiles. The planter whose home was furthest 
away from Newark would naturally pass as close to 
his nearest neighbor's house as he could in coming 
here, so that the neighbor's family might join him 
on his journey, or that he might see them and learn 
of any news they might have to give. They might 
wish him to do errands for them in the town. Then 
he would go by the next neighbor's home and so on 
down into the town. It did not take much of this 
kind of travel, always at first on foot or horseback, 
to wear a path, which after a time grew broad and 
smooth enough to permit a wagon to pass along. As 
the wagon path became better known new planters 
came and built their homes near it. Thus some of 
the great roads leading into Newark were opened 
almost before there were any houses near them. 
Later they were straightened and changed from 
time to time. Many of the old roads began thus, in 
winding foot or bridle-paths. 

23. The First Industry. 
In the early days of the town the planters found 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 41 

apples growing wild in the higher lands toward the 
Orange Mountains. The apples were small, very 
much like what we now call crab-apples; but the 
settlers cultivated them and grafted them with slips 
which they got in Connecticut, until they had 
splendid crops of fine fruit every year. Some of 
the finest apples grown in this part of the country 
then came from the neighborhood of Newark. They 
were so plentiful that the planters soon began to 
make cider of them and made it so well that Newark 
became known throughout the English colonies in 
America for the excellence of its cider. 

24. Treat Returns to Connecticut. 

When the town was in good running order Robert 
Treat went back to his old home in Connecticut. He 
had done splendid work here as an organizer and 
as a leader of men, a work for which history has 
never given him the credit he deserved. Once back 
in Connecticut he found much to do there, and few 
men in any of the English settlements were as useful 
to the people as he. He was a brave man and a born 
soldier, ready always to do his duty. 

When all the New England colonies had to raise a 
little army to fight the Indians, Robert Treat was 
chosen to lead the Connecticut soldiers. This was 
in King Philip's war, in 1675, nine years after Treat 



42 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

and his companions had founded Newark. His 
soldiers joined with those of Massachusetts Bay 
and Plymouth colonies on a bitter cold day and 
marched many miles into the forest until they came 
to a swamp with a low hill in its centre. On this 
hill was an Indian fort, and within its walls were 
several thousand Indians — men, women and 
children. Many of the Indian warriors had guns 
which they had bought or stolen from the white 
men and with which they could shoot well. 

25. Treat in Battle. 
There seemed but one way to reach the fort, along 
the trunk of a tree that made a rude bridge over a 
ditch. This ditch ran all around the fort and the 
tree trunk crossed it just in front of the gate. When 
the soldiers saw the little bridge they ran bravely 
toward it through the swamp. As they tried to 
cross it the Indians fired at them through little 
slits in the walls of the fort and killed many. Still 
other soldiers charged for the tree trunk. Again 
came flashes of flame from the walls, and the ditch 
began to fill up with dead and dying white men. 
The colonists showed great courage at this terrible 
moment. Their descendants were never more reso- 
lute or fearless of death a hundred years later when 
the War for Independence came. But here some- 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 43 

thing more than bravery was needed. At this instant 
the Connecticut men, who had been kept as a rear 
guard, arrived on the field. Major Treat sent part 
of them into the fight at the tree trunk ; the rest he 
led around to the rear looking for a place where 
they might break through and attack the red men 
from the back. The weak spot was found, and 
quicker than it can be told the Connecticut men 
were emptying their guns at the Indians, who did 
not dream that an enemy could possibly get at them 
from behind until they heard the roar of muskets 
and caught the sound of the Connecticut men's 
cheers. Many hundreds of the Indians were killed 
at the fort and the village that stood inside of it 
was destroyed by fire. Major Treat was the last 
man to leave this awful scene of bloodshed. This 
stroke of the Connecticut men saved the New 
England soldiers from frightful slaughter and from 
possible loss of the battle. The victory broke the 
power of King Philip, and the Indians were never 
again so troublesome in New England. 

26. Treat as Governor. 

When Major Treat returned at the head of his 
victorious but badly shattered force, the people of 
Connecticut hailed him as a hero, and soon made 
him Deputy Governor. Later he became Governor, 



44 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

and it was while he was in office that the tyrant, 
Andros, sent over by the English King to enforce 
harsh laws on the colonists and to take their charters 
away, came to Connecticut. The charter was an 
agreement in writing, signed by the King, giving 
the colonies certain rights. Governor Treat received 
the King's officer in the assembly hall in the after- 
noon of a warm day and made a speech of welcome. 
It grew dark while the conference was still going on, 
and candles had to be brought. The candles were 
placed on the table on which lay the precious charter 
of Connecticut. Suddenly some one tossed a coat 
through an open window on to the table, and thus 
put out the candles. When the candles were lighted 
again the charter had vanished and no one seemed 
to know where it had gone. Andros was in a fury 
over its disappearance; but could do nothing. The 
colonists hid it in a tree which is now famous in 
history as Connecticut's "Charter Oak." Just how 
much Robert Treat had to do with this plan for 
keeping the charter from the king's officer and thus 
retaining the people's rights, we shall never know; 
but that he was deep in the plan to help preserve the 
colonists against greater tyrannies, we may be sure. 
He lived to be eighty-six, and when he died the 
whole Connecticut colony felt his loss keenly. 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 45 

27. Settlers were Able Men. 

These incidents show what kind of men they were 
who made Newark. It happened that no warlike 
Indians lived in New Jersey when the Newark 
settlers came, for they had been subdued many 
years before by fierce tribes in Pennsylvania and 
upper New York. If the Jersey Indians had been 
hostile; if they had skulked about the settlement 
watching for a chance to burn the houses and kill 
the women and children, or to drive their flint- 
tipped arrows into the hearts of the men as they 
worked in the fields, they would have found the 
Newark settlers just as brave as were their rela- 
tives and friends in Connecticut. The prepara- 
tions of the first Newarkers to face an Indian 
uprising, already described, show their fearlessness. 
Robert Treat took up arms when he went back to his 
old home, because the colonies were in danger of 
destruction. The future of New England and of the 
English speaking race from the Delaware to Maine, 
hung for a little time almost in the balance. Had 
not the Indians been wholly subdued the settlers 
might all have been driven away. 

28. Newark, Yale and Princeton. 

There were other men here, quite as good and as 
strong as the fighting men, who showed their skill 



46 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

and bravery in a different way. The Rev. Abraham 
Pierson, the pastor of the church that we now know 
as the First Presbyterian, was as fearless and as 
stalwart a Puritan as the men of arms. He was a 
deep and earnest thinker, and the whole town loved 
him and looked up to him as the chosen head of that 
church for which they and their parents and grand- 
parents had suffered so much in England and New 
England. The son of Pastor Pierson, who bore 
the same name as his father, was not a soldier, but a 
scholar like his father. He went back to Connecticut, 
and in later years, when Yale College was started, 
became its first president. You may see his statue 
to-day in the college yard at New Haven. 

Newark came very near being the birthplace of 
what is now Princeton University. The College of 
New Jersey, which was founded at Elizabethtown 
in May, 1747, was removed to Newark a few 
months later, in the same year, when its head, the 
Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, died. Here it grew and 
prospered for about nine years, under the charge of 
the Rev. Aaron Burr, pastor of the First Church, 
and father of the vice-president of the United States 
of that name. Some, and probably most, of the 
college exercises, were held in the building adjoin- 
ing the church on Broad street near Branford place, 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 47 

known as the Court House. The college was 
founded by the Presbyterian Synod of New York, 
which included a part of New Jersey. One reason 
for the establishment of the institution was that the 
authorities of Yale College did not relish the kindly 
treatment given by the clergymen of this section to 
David Brainer'd, whom the Yale faculty called one 
of their "disorderly pupils." Brainerd had been 
appointed a missionary to the Indians in this 
neighborhood and in what is now New York State, 
after he had been expelled from Yale. Brainerd's 
offense was one that we of to-day would call very 
trivial, and it is hard for us to understand why a 
college faculty should take it so seriously. It was 
charged against him that he had said one of the 
college instructors had no more spiritual grace than 
a chair, and that he had attended a religious meet- 
ing of a sect of which the college authorities did not 
approve. The Rev. Dr. Burr, the first president of 
the New Jersey College, is said to have remarked: 
"If it had not been for the treatment received by 
Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, New Jersey College 
never would have been erected." The clergymen in 
New Jersey were inclined to believe that the students 
they sent to Yale were made to feel the faculty's 
displeasure because of the Brainerd incident. 



48 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

The college might have remained here to this day 
had the people living in Newark and hereabouts 
given it more liberal support. The officers of the 
college decided that new buildings and other equip- 
ment were needed and they asked the people to give 
money and land for this object. They gave very 
little and very slowly, and when land was offered at 
Princeton, with other inducements, it was decided 
to remove the college thither. So Newark lost an 
opportunity to become the permanent home of one 
of the greatest colleges in the country. While the 
college was in Newark it had about ninety students. 
Brainerd, the missionary, who, as already explained 
was indirectly one of the causes for the founding of 
the college, died in the same year the institution 
was founded. He contracted consumption while 
laboring among the Indians. 

Fifteen years or so before the starting of the 
College of New Jersey, the First Presbyterian 
church became involved in a controversy which 
finally disrupted it. Colonel Josiah Ogden, a leading 
member of the church, went into his fields with his 
servants one Sunday and gathered in his wheat 
which was in danger of destruction from long con- 
tinued rains. He was disciplined for this by the 
church authorities. He resented this treatment, 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 



49 



apparently contending that Sunday was made for 
man and not man for Sunday. There was a long 
discussion, and in the end Colonel Ogden and many 
who sympathized with him left the church and 
founded Trinity Episcopal Church congregation. 
This was about 1732 or '33. There had been 
occasional services of the Episcopal church in 
Newark for several years previous to this. The 
first Trinity Church was built in 1743-' 44, and the 
base of the spire of the present edifice was in the 
original structure. Wounded Continental soldiers 
were cared for in the old church after the disastrous 
battle of Long Island, in 1776. 

29. Military Park. 

Military Park was first called the Training Place. 
It was there the able-bodied men gathered once or 
twice a year to drill and practice shooting their 
muskets. This was done that they might be ready 
at any time in case the Indians became troublesome. 
When King Philip's war was raging in New 
England the Newark settlers became very anxious 
for fear the Indians of New Jersey might take up 
the hatchet. In the year of the King Philip War 
we find the following in the ancient record of 
Newark's town meetings : — 

"John Ward is chosen to procure a barrel of 



50 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

powder and lead answerable to it, as reasonable as 
he can; provided that the town pay him within this 
week in corn, fowls and eggs, or any way to satisfy 
him." This was the way they got their ammunition. 

30. Newark in 1774. 

But another century was to flow quietly by before 
Newark had any real cause to become troubled over 
war's alarms. When the clouds of the coming War 
for Independence began to gather, the sturdy descen- 
dants of the early settlers showed that they possessed 
the splendid spirit of their fathers. In Newark was 
held one of the first meetings in the entire province 
of New Jersey to protest against the tyranny of King 
George the Third. It assembled in the little hall 
in what was then called the Court House, on Broad 
street, about where Branford place is now cut 
through. All the patriots of Essex County gathered 
at that meeting. They voiced their protest against 
the refusal of Governor Franklin, a son of Benjamin 
Franklin, to call a session of the Colonial Legislature 
for the purpose of choosing delegates to the first 
Congress at Philadelphia. But the meeting did more 
than protest. It drew up a circular letter which 
was sent out to all the counties of the province, 
calling upon the people to send delegates to a con- 
vention to be held in New Brunswick on July 21 of 




a 

s 

w 

H 

a 



52 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

that same year, 1774. It was at the convention in 
New Brunswick that representatives to the first 
Continental Congress were chosen. Resolutions 
were also passed at the Newark meeting condemning 
the reigning monarch and the home government of 
England for its oppression of the colonies. 

31. In the War for Independence. 

Newark and the whole county suffered for its 
patriotism later on, when war was raging. British 
soldiers often descended upon the little town and 
took away provisions, cattle and sheep worth many 
hundred dollars ; sometimes burned houses, and two 
or three times took away furniture and abused men 
and women. The brave pastor of the First Church, 
the Rev. Alexander Macwhorter, a true successor to 
the old Puritan pastor, Pierson, spoke out with 
fervor and fearlessness from his pulpit, and for his 
boldness was forced to leave the town. Two or 
three times, British officers and soldiers came from 
New York or Staten Island to arrest him; but he 
was always told of their coming in time to escape. 
In November, 1776, when Washington and his army 
left Newark in their flight through the State, Pastor 
Macwhorter traveled with the Commander-in-chief, 
and counselled with him upon the movement which 
ended in the capture of Trenton, on Christmas Eve. 




Trinity Church a Soldiers' Hospital— 1776. 



54 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

32. Washington in Newark. 

After the defeat and retirement from Long Island, 
Washington and his army were in Newark for five 
or six days. They had fled across the Hudson, over 
the upper Hackensack Meadows and down the west 
bank of the Passaic. It was a very trying time for 
Washington. He lost hundreds of his soldiers while 
in Newark because their terms of service had run 
out and they wished to go to their homes. British 
agents were active in town and country, and offered 
inducements to the people to sign papers agreeing 
not to oppose the king's soldiers and not to give aid 
to the patriot army. Many signed these papers. In 
fact, at that time and for a number of years after- 
ward, nearly half the people of this town and county 
were either active Tories or in secret sympathizers 
with the British government. 

One of Washington's greatest trials was the 
failure of General Charles Lee, second in command 
to Washington, to come to Newark with his army 
of several thousand men. Had he joined the 
Commander-in-chief, as the latter urged him to do 
in letters he sent every day while the army was in 
Newark, Washington could have made a stand and 
fought a battle here. Some historians think that he 
wished to do this. But the cunning Lee would not 



THE STORY OF ITS EARLY DAYS. 55 

come. He hoped that Washington would meet with 
disaster, and that then he could get Congress to make 
him commander of the armies of the colonists. 
Later, both Congress and Washington came to 
understand Lee's treachery; but not until the latter 
had made a great deal of trouble and done much 
harm to the patriot cause. 

When Washington left Newark, going toward 
New Brunswick, people said they could trace the 
army route by bloody foot-prints of the ragged 
soldiers. But a great victory was at hand, and soon 
Newark and all the country rang with cheers over 
the capture of the Hessians at Trenton. Then 
came Washington's brilliant strategy at the 
battle of Princeton, at which in later years the great 
military students of Europe marveled. After the 
Princeton battle Washington went into winter 
quarters at Morristown. He and the army passed 
two winters there and on more than one occasion 
the Commander-in-chief made trips to Newark. 

33. British Outrages. 

On one of their forays, the British burned the 
Academy at the foot of Washington Park, and, 
going across the street to a house that stood on the 
corner of what is now Broad and Lombardy, seized 
a brave patriot named Joseph Hedden. They made 



56 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 



him walk all the way to Paulus Hook, now Jersey 
City, through the bitter cold, clad only in his night- 
gown and a blanket which a neighbor gave him as 
he and his captors passed. 

These were stirring days for Newark, and the 
spirit of the old settlers seemed born anew in 
descendants whose devotion to their country no hard- 
ship could shake. Newark and the county had 
minute-men, and often when the British and 
Hessians, or bands of Tories made their trips here- 
abouts looking for food and plunder, these minute- 
men rallied and fought the foe "from behind each 
fence and farmyard wall." They seriously harassed 
these foraging parties as the latter made their way 
back through the country toward New York or 
Staten Island. The battle of Springfield was so near 
the town of Newark that the people here heard the 
thunder of its cannon. Newark minute-men doubt- 
less fought in that combat, as did many other 
Newarkers who were in the companies that enlisted 
here and in neighboring towns. 

One of the illustrations in this book shows a 
party of the king's soldiers engaged in a lively 
skirmish at the corner of Market and Broad streets. 
The British were returning to Bergen hill after a 
search for food among: the farms in and near 



58 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

Newark. For several miles they had been sorely 
harassed by minute-men. As they crossed Broad 
street the minute-men's fire from adjacent houses 
became so severe that the commander of the detach- 
ment ordered the men to halt and fire. 

In the house on the northwest corner were several 
men. One of them was very old, too old to shoot, 
so he sat beside the fire and loaded the guns for the 
others to fire. The British finally charged the house, 
burst down the door and drove the minute-men out 
of it and through the apple and peach orchard to the 
west. Some of the British soldiers, finding the old 
man sitting by the fire, were about to kill him, but 
the leader, far more humane than many of his 
brother officers, gave the order to spare him, because 
of his great age and feebleness. 

It is a constant regret to historians that the old 
Newarkers did not write down more of the records 
of these times. But they were a people of deeds, 
not of words. We have records enough to be well 
assured that Newark's people came out of the awful 
trial of the War of Independence with great honor, 
and upheld the cause of patriotism even in the very 
darkest hours of the struggle. 

34. The Heritage of Other Days. 

It took a long time to make this city of Newark. 



6o A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

The grim old settlers put their best energies into its 
beginnings, and their descendants worked quite as 
hard to make it better still. All down the long line 
of Newark people, since 1666, there has been steady 
and willing toil year by year, generation after 
generation, to build Newark up, stronger, better and 
fairer. Now it is in our hands; those who have 
gone have left the city to us. Shall we not, as the 
others have done before us, take the best care of it 
we can ? Shall we not try to make it each year a 
more agreeable place to live in, more beautiful to 
look at, a source of pride to all who grow up in it 
and share the good things— the fine streets, the 
parks, the trees, the schools, the public buildings, 
the beautiful homes— which men and women during 
nearly two hundred and fifty years have worked 
hard to give to it? 



THE STORY OF ITS 
AWAKENING 




SETH BOYDEN 179S-1870 
FKOM A BUST IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 



CHAPTER II. 

THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING 

When the War for Independence closed Newark 
was 117 years old; that is, not much older than 
the United States is to-day. Nearly half the life 
of the city as it is reckoned at present writing had 
then been lived. We often think that little of import- 
ance was going on here until after the colonies 
separated from England, and forget that in Newark 
as in all other parts of the country our forefathers 
were making a brave fight with nature in changing 
a wild country to a fruitful and homelike one. 

35. Before 1776. 
Newark grew very slowly in all the first 117 
years; very slowly indeed. Towns sprang up all 
over what is now New Jersey and some of them 
became busy places; but Newark jogged soberly 
along in very much the same way for more than a 
century. Settlers looking for places in this 
neighborhood in which to live did not altogether 
like Newark. The marshes still covered many acres 
of what is now a densely populated city. Some who 
visited the town with the idea of making their home 



64 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 



in it were deterred by their fear of malaria and 
fever which they thought they might get from the 
marshes. The first settlers, however, had little fear 
of the marshes. They had learned that people may 
live near such places and still be healthy. Besides, 
they never dreamed that the town would grow to be 
as large as it has in the last half-century. 

Then too, as we have already seen, the men who 
governed the town were severe judges of all who 
wished to come and live among them. It had been 
so from the very earliest days of the settlement. The 
generation that controlled Newark about the time 
of the War for Independence, inherited the views 
of their ancestors on this subject, and a century and 
more had modified very little this wish to have all 
who lived in the community of the same faith and 
the same customs. They inherited the belief that 
it was wisest to keep out all who did not think as 
they did about almost everything, and especially 
on the subject of religious faith. 

36. Newark's Long Sleep. 
When the nineteenth century opened there were 
living in Newark hardly twelve hundred persons, 
men, women and children. In a hundred years the 
population had scarcely doubled. Many more people 
now pass the corner of Market and Broad streets in 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 65 

a few minutes during the busy hours of morning 
or evening than lived in all Newark in 1800. In 
the last hundred years Newark has increased in 
population more than two hundred and fifty times. 
In fact it has done nearly all its growing in the last 
seventy years. It drowsed and dreamed in peace 
and quiet, content to stay as it was, for nearly a 
century and a half, from 1666 to 1820. Its people 
do not seem to have cared to be rich nor did they 
wish to see their town made big. They were born, 
grew up, married, lived their span of years in 
uneventfulness and moderate labor, died and were 
buried in the Old Burying Ground, or in the church- 
yard back of the First Church. 

37. Newark the Village in 1800. 

In 1800 the town of Newark was not huddled 
closely together as the city is- to-day. There was 
plenty of land around nearly every building. Even 
with all this open space its boundaries were narrow, 
and were practically these : On the north, Bridge 
street, opposite where the Public Library now 
stands; on the south, South or Lincoln Park; on 
the west, Washington street; and on the east, 
Mulberry street. There were very few houses 
beyond these limits. Newark was then a charming 
little village. 



66 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

The town shepherd herded his flocks in Military 
Park, which had a post and rail fence around part 
of it. Where Centre Market now stands was a one- 
story frame building, used for many years as a post 
office. On the east side of the Park there were but 
three houses and along the northern boundary but 
two. The Trinity Church of that day was much 
smaller than the present building. The main 
entrance faced the park, in the middle of the long 
side. In Washington Park the boys and girls 
played at hide-and-seek among the low crumbling 
walls of the old stone Academy building, which 
stood at the lower end of the Park nearly opposite 
the end of Halsey street. It had been burned by 
the British in 1780, when troops were sent out 
from New York to harass the patriots, Down 
Broad street from Military Park toward Market 
street were a few low buildings. 

The largest building in the town, except the 
church, was the Academy, which was built after the 
War for Independence and took the place of the one 
destroyed by the British. It stood where the Post 
Office now is. If one chanced to meet, about 1830, 
an old resident, he could tell how the British 
soldiers came into the town in the daytime, and 
terrorized the patriots, ransacked their houses, broke 




Looking East from Mulberry Street — 1800. 



68 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

and burned their furniture, and filled the street with 
the fragments of household goods which they 
destroyed in their search for valuables, all in the 
hope that they would thus break the spirit of the 
people who were so bravely fighting for their 
independence. 

At the corner of Market and Broad streets, in 
1800, were only two-story or story-and-a-half build- 
ings. There were orchards and gardens behind 
these buildings and sometimes between them. The 
centre of the space where the two streets meet, and 
where the car tracks now cross, was ten or fifteen 
feet lower than the corners, and here was a town 
pump, surrounded with mud in summer and with 
ice and slush during most of the winter. 

38. The Old Tavern and Southern Trade. 

On the northeast corner was Archer Gi fiord's 
tavern with its wonderful sign which every boy in 
town no doubt thought a great work of art. The 
name of the tavern was "The Hunters and the 
Hounds." These words were on the sign, with a 
painting showing a pack of hounds and several 
hunters on horseback, one of the hunters holding 
aloft a fox by the hind legs while the hounds jumped 
about him. The sport of that day for gentlemen, 
especially in the South, was fox hunting. Planters 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 69 

coming from the South stopped at the tavern 
frequently, and the pretty town of Newark became 
well known through the stories of good fare and 
pleasant times which the planters told when they 
returned home. In this way trade with the South 
sprang up when Newark began to make things to 
sell. Southerners bought Newark goods liberally, 
and trade with the South grew as Newark grew. 

Much of the life of the town, in 1800, centered 
around the tavern. It was there that one went to 
get the news of the day. It was opened shortly 
after the War for Independence, and soon became 
a favorite resort for all persons passing up or down 
the country. Travelers from over the hills, from 
Morristown and beyond, stopped there on their way 
to New York, and usually stayed over night to 
refresh themselves before going on. Those who 
came from Philadelphia and beyond, also stayed 
there, unless they stopped at Elizabethtown and 
there took a boat to New York. 

39. The Stage Coach. 

Six years or so before the last century opened, a 
stage line between Newark and New York was 
started. The stage went to New York in the 
morning and returned at night, and though it made 
only one trip each way every day except Sunday 



;o A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

and carried only six passengers, it was spoken of at 
the time as "a great convenience." It started from 
the Gifford tavern in the morning and returned in 
the afternoon, always with a grand flourish of horns. 
For many years this means of communication with 
New York, and that by boats, filled all needs. In 
1840, however, there were eight or ten coaches 
running to and from New York every day, each 
carrying fourteen or fifteen passengers, some sitting 
outside and others traveling inside. 

40. Broad Street in 1800. 

In 1800 the jail stood a little north of where 
Branford place now is and where the first church of 
the settlers had once stood. Across the street and 
a little further south was the First Church, just as 
we see it to-day, except that it was quite new then 
and the people thought it a splendid edifice. It was 
the most pretentious building in all the town, as the 
people believed it should be. It was built some years 
after the War for Independence. The man who had 
most to do with getting it built was Pastor 
Macwhorter, already mentioned as a brave patriot 
and fearless preacher during the war. Here and 
there along Broad street below Market were stores. 
On the south corner of Broad and William streets, 
a little back from the road, was the First Church 







I .,,/j /, 



W 



| jMh 



72 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

parsonage. Here was born Aaron Burr, son of one 
of the pastors of the church, and vice-president of 
the United States in 1801. He was a good soldier 
during the War for Independence, but later failed 
to maintain high standards of honor and citizenship. 
From this point on the houses were fewer and 
further apart, and the southern limit of the town 
was reached at what is now the junction of Clinton 
avenue and Broad street. Clinton avenue was a 
cart path, and Broad street here ended in a swamp. 

41. High Street and Beyond in 1800. 

Along all the length of High street there were 
but two or three houses and the street itself was 
little more than a lane. Beyond it, to the west, 
there were a few inviting paths, lovers' walks in 
fact, where the young men and women of Newark 
strolled on quiet Sunday afternoons, looking down 
on the little village nestling among the trees below, 
with the blue bay beyond. On week days sheep and 
cattle pastured in the fields and meadows beyond 
High street; and except for an occasional planter 
travelling back and forth from town to his home on 
the Orange Mountains or near by, one might stroll 
for hours over what is now West Newark and Rose- 
ville and hear no sounds save those of nature. It is 
hard to realize that in 1800 everybody living in 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 73 

the town knew everybody else. This was a fact, 
however. Even forty years later old gentlemen 
sometimes wrote to the newspapers that they no 
longer knew even by sight all whom they met on 
the street, so great had the town grown ! 

42. A Farm in Mulberry Street in 1815. 
In the year 181 5 a prominent Newark man wished 
to go to Europe, and to pay his expenses he decided 
to sell some of his land. So he advertised for sale 
his house, and his farm of about ten acres, extending 
along Mulberry street about eight hundred feet, and 
running all the way to the Passaic River where it 
had a frontage of about eight hundred feet. There 
was a board fence nine feet high all around this 
farm, and in the advertisement the owner stated 
that : "Last season, besides cutting fifty-six tons of 
hay, there were kept in the pasture twenty-five 
Merino sheep, three cows in the best order, and a 
flock of eighty or one hundred sheep may be amply 
supplied with grass on the premises." The tract 
just described is now one of the most densly built-up 
sections of the entire city and the ground alone is 
worth several million dollars. Yet it was of farms 
such as this that Newark was very largely made up 
at that time. Just think of ten acres with only one 
house on it, in the heart of the Newark of to-day. 



74 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

43. Quiet Sundays in Old Newark. 

Many of the solemn old citizens of Newark did 
not like to see their town awakening from its long 
sleep, and it hurt them most of all to see the calm 
of their Sundays disturbed. Evidently they felt that 
a change was coming; they saw that the young 
generation was growing uneasy under the restraints 
put upon it during the day of rest, for, a little before 
1800, a large number of them formed an association 
to preserve the old Puritan Sabbath. They agreed 
neither to ride out nor to travel on Sunday except 
in cases of necessity, nor let their children or appren- 
tices do so, but to keep them indoors all day long. 
They also agreed to try to get everyone else in the 
town to live in the same sober way. They would 
let no wagons of any sort be driven about or through 
the town on Sunday. They even stopped a coach 
bearing the United States mail, and had to be told 
that they would be handcuffed and taken to Wash- 
ington as prisoners if they did not let the mail 
carriers alone. Once they halted a carriage in which 
a young army officer was driving on his way to New 
York. The officer threatened to shoot them as he 
would robbers. Then they let him go. It is believed 
that this young officer was Winfield Scott, after- 
wards famous as the hero of the Mexican War, and 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 75 

the head of the army at the time of the outbreak 
of the Rebellion. On still another occasion a gentle- 
man travelling from the South was not permitted 
to continue his journey on the Sabbath. He stayed 
at the Gifford tavern and on Monday, when the land- 
lord asked for his pay, he told his host to collect the 
money from the stern and puritanical citizens who 
had made him stay over Sunday against his will. 

But little by little this spirit of intolerance, a relic 
of the old puritanism of which we find many traces 
in the history of the beginnings of Newark, died 
out, and new and broader life began. 

44. Newark Begins to Make Things. 

The greatest incentive to the growth of Newark 
was the discovery by the people that they could 
make things that other people would pay money 
for. They found that they were handy with tools. 
Other towns had sprung up about them and bought 
the things Newark people made. In the country 
north and west of the town, were still a few 
Indians, and also bear, elk, deer, wolves and other 
wild animals. Farmers were raising good crops on 
the fertile soil. They brought their products to 
market in Newark, and the Newark people began to 
give the things they made to the farmers in exchange 
for food, wool, lumber and other products. 



76 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

45. Making Boots and Shoes. 

Long before the War for Independence the settlers 
tanned and curried leather; but they seem to have 
done it only for home use until about 1790. Then 
a man named Moses Combs opened a little factory 
and made boots and shoes to sell. He may be called 
the first manufacturer of Newark; and as he was a 
remarkable man it is well to know a little more 
about him than simply that he made shoes. 

46. An Early Free School. 

He started one of the very first free schools in the 
United States. This was about 1800. He opened 
this school for his apprentices, and built a large 
building on Market street near Plane, part of it for 
a school and the rest for a church. Mr. Combs was 
not pleased with the preaching in the First Presby- 
terian Church, although he had long been a promi- 
nent member of it and had given liberally to help 
erect the present First Presbyterian Church building. 
So he started a church of his own; but it did not 
last long. This shoemaker was also a strong believer 
in freedom for all men, and, though he lived over 
half a century before the War of the Rebellion 
which set the slaves free, he talked in favor of their 
freedom wherever he went. He did more; he gave 
freedom to a black man whom he owned as a slave. 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 77 

In this case kindness was poorly rewarded, for the 
negro was an evil-doer and was hanged for murder 
in what is now Military Park, in 1805. 

This pioneer of Newark's manufacturers was a 
far-seeing man in many ways. In his idea of a free 
school he sought to supply education, not only 
because it was a good thing for the boys and girls, 
but also because he wished to make out of them 
better workmen for his factory. This was really 
the beginning of the industrial and trade and 
manual training school idea of which we of to-day 
are only just now beginning to appreciate the great 
need. Mr. Combs, the far-seeing, discerned this 
need a hundred years ago. 

Mr. Combs was probably the first Newark manu- 
facturer to send any of his goods to the South. He 
sent two hundred pairs of sealskin shoes to Georgia. 
This shipment brought more orders, for Mr. Combs 
made his shoes very well and the Southerners liked 
them. Later Mr. Combs received as much as $9,000 
for one shipment of shoes to the South. 

47. Newark a Village of Shoemakers. 

His neighbors saw him making money, and some 
of them also began to make shoes to sell. Soon 
Newark was sending shoes by the wagon-load far 
and wide. So busy were the people making shoes, 



78 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

in 1806, that when a map of the town was made in 
that year, the map maker drew on its margin a 
picture of a shoemaker busy at his last; and this 
map is known as the "Shoemaker map" to this day. 
A few years later nineteen-twentieths of the Newark 
men, women and children who worked for other 
people were employed in manufactures in which 
leather was used. At one time a third of all the 
people worked at shoemaking. Newark manufactur- 
ers had to hire men and boys from other towns to 
work in their shops, for there were not enough here. 
Workmen came from far and near, and the town 
grew very rapidly. In 1810 there were 6,000 people 
in the city; in 1826, 8,000, and in 1830, 11,000. In 
1833 tne population was estimated at 15,000, with 
1,712 dwelling houses. After the first 117 years — 
from 1666 to 1783 when the War for Independence 
closed — the village was a village still. But in the 
next 50 years it grew to be a town of 15,000. 

48. The Stone Quarries. 

Shoemaking seems to have aroused the people to 
make other things to sell. The quarries of brown- 
stone in the neighborhood of what are now Bloom- 
field and Clifton avenues, from which building- 
stone had been taken in small quantities even before 
the War for Independence, now became very busy 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 79 

places. Many tons of the stone were taken out and 
used for buildings in and near Newark, and much 
of it was sent to New York. Clifton avenue, from 
Bloomfield avenue, north, is built for half a block 
over one of the most famous of the old quarries. 
The going and coming of the stone sleds and wagons 
made that section of the town a bustling neighbor- 
hood in the early years of the last century. 

49. Flour Mills and Saw Mills. 

Two mills in which grain was ground into flour 
stood on Mill Brook, which ran down the hillside, 
and crossed Broad street at the point where Belle- 
ville avenue now begins. One of them was built 
by the first settlers and they looked on it as almost 
as great an undertaking as the building of their 
church. They appointed a special committee to 
go about the woods and fields to find stones that 
would do for mill stones. There were also two 
saw mills on the brook, a little east of Broad street. 
Near by a store was started, and thus, early in the 
last century the upper section of the town became its 
busiest and most enterprising section. 

50. Iron Foundries; Tool Making. 

As the shops and mills grew in number, the call 
for tools to use in them increased. Iron was needed. 



8o A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

and it was not long before the first iron foundry in 
the town was started, on the spot where the Second 
Presbyterian Church stands at the corner of Wash- 
ington and James streets, opposite Washington 
Park. A short distance away, in the middle of the 
park, is the statue of Seth Boyden, and if a statue 
can ever be said to stand on a spot where it feels at 
home, this one certainly may. 

51. Seth Boyden, Inventor. 

Moses Combs taught the people of Newark that 
they could make things to sell, and Seth Boyden 
made them tools with which to work and helped 
them in many other ways, discovering new methods 
of doing things, methods that took less time and 
cost less money. The foundry mentioned above, at 
the corner of James and Washington streets, was not 
his; but shortly after he came to Newark, in 181 5, 
he started a foundry of his own, a few hundred 
yards from where his statue now is, on Orange 
street, a little way from Broad street and to the east 
of it. The glare of the furnaces at these two 
foundries lighted up the town at night for many 
years. From them came the tools and machines with 
which the Newark workers were able to make some 
of the best articles that were sold anywhere in the 
country. 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 81 

Newark needed very much a man like Seth 
Boy den, the inventor, just when he came. The 
effect of his inventions upon the town was wonder- 
ful. He was the first to make patent leather in this 
country. On July 4, 1826, when all the townspeople 
were flocking to Military Park to witness the cele- 
bration, the greatest that had ever been held in 
Newark, of the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of 
the Declaration of Independence, Seth Boyden, toil- 
ing in his foundry on Orange street, discovered how 
to make malleable iron, a discovery which has since 
been of almost priceless value to the world. 

52. Boyden a Many-sided Genius. 

Boyden was a deep thinker, and he used his brain 
to benefit mankind. Benjamin Franklin discovered 
by means of his kite that electricity came from the 
clouds to the earth; and many years afterward our 
Newark inventor, found, without any kite and 
simply by means of a copper wire which he stuck 
in the ground in Irvington, that electricity went 
from the earth to the clouds. Nobody before 
Boyden knew that this was so. He found our 
strawberries small and, though pleasant to the taste, 
not half so sweet as they now are. He studied the 
strawberry and by careful cultivation produced the 
large and luscious fruit as we now know it. Many 



& A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

of the things he did would have made him a rich 
man had he lived to-day; but he seemed never to 
think of riches ; he worked so hard and so earnestly, 
we are told by those who knew him, that he scarcely 
knew the difference between day and night. 

53. Coaches, Coach-lace, Saddlery. 

The making of coaches began soon after the shoe- 
makers got to work. These first Newark coaches 
would seem clumsy affairs to us, but being well 
adapted to the needs of the time, they met with favor 
and were sold and sent to different parts of the 
country. Close on the heels of the coachmakers 
came the workers in coach-lace. Saddlery hardware 
also was needed and Newark began to make it. 
54. Hats, Jewelry, Beer. 

Then came hat making. In 1830 there were nine 
hat shops in Newark. Soon the manufacture of 
jewelry was begun. In 1836 • there were four 
jewelry shops here and thirteen tanneries. Trunk 
making was also carried on early in the last century, 
but on a small scale. The brewing of beer was 
begun early, too, and in 1830 there were two 
breweries here. From that time on the number and 
kinds of shops, factories and mills increased rapidly. 
In 1908 they numbered over 4,000 with promise of 
many more in the near future. 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 83 

55. Power from Water and from Animals. 

At first water power was used to drive machinery 
in factories, though horses and oxen sometimes fur- 
nished the power by treadmills. In the treadmills 
animals were made to try to walk on a place almost 
as steep as the roof of a house, on slats of wood 
which moved downward as fast as they were stepped 
on. The slats were fastened closely together so that 
the animals' hoofs would not go between them. As 
the slats moved, wheels beneath were turned. 
These wheels turned other wheels in the shop. 
Of course the poor animals never got to the top of 
the steep place. In fact, they never got much higher 
than they were when they started. If they grew 
tired the wheels went slower and slower, and the 
shop did not have enough power. Boys and men 
made the animals go faster and, sad to say, often 
used whips. About the year 1810, in a foundry on 
Market street, a blower was used, and an ox walked 
a treadmill to make the blower go. The first 
printing presses used in Newark were turned by 
hand. Steam for power in shops and factories did 
not come into use in Newark until about 1825. 

56. Ships, Whaling; the Canal. 
Not all the new business life in Newark was 
on land. About 1839 the Passaic river became a 



84 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

very busy place. A hundred vessels of all sorts 
were owned here and plied between Newark and 
other ports. A little later, as many as 300 vessels 
passed in and out of Newark bay in one day. Two 
or three large whaling ships were fitted out here, 
and one of them, after a cruise of over two years, 
sailed proudly up the Passaic with a full cargo of 
3,000 barrels of whale oil and 15,000 pounds of 
whalebone. In 1832 the Morris canal was com- 
pleted, and this brought a great deal of business to 
the now thriving community. For years Newark 
got nearly all of its coal, much of its wood for fuel, 
and other commodities by the canal. 

57. Eminent Men in Newark. 

Early in the last century Newark was known far 
and wide as a pleasant place to linger in and many 
prominent men lived here for a time or made visits 
here. The great French wit, statesman, diplomat 
and man of letters, Talleyrand, made his home here 
for about three years, from 1792 to 1795. He had 
fled from France and later from England. Blenner- 
hassett, a famous English immigrant whose latter 
years were made stormy and melancholy largely 
through his dealings with Aaron Burr, also lived 
here for a time. Probably Burr, who was a native 
of Newark, had something to do with Blenner- 



THE STORY OF ITS AWAKENING. 85 

hassett's coming here. Peter Van Berckel, minister 
from the States of Holland to the United States 
late in the eighteenth century, made his home in 
Newark, and died here. 

The noble Lafayette, who had so much to do with 
the successful termination of the War for Indepen- 
dence, paid Newark a visit in 1824, and was given 
a great reception in Military Park. He was enter- 
tained before the reception in a house a little south 
of where the American Insurance Company building 
now stands. Henry Clay was in Newark in 1833. 
In 1852, Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, was 
received by the people of Newark with great cere- 
mony. Abraham Lincoln, while on his way to 
Washington just before his inauguration in 1861, 
made a short stop in this city, on the eve of Wash- 
ington's birthday. General Grant and others of the 
country's great men have also enjoyed Newark's 
hospitality during the last century. 

58. Newark Awake. 

This is the story of Newark's Awakening. If 
read thoughtfully it seems quite as wonderful as 
many a tale of fancy you will find. A hundred 
years ago Newark was like a little hive of drones; 
now it is a great hive of busy bees. Once it was 
like an idle boy, lying dozing in the sun; now it is 



86 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

like a huge giant, awake and active, with great 
muscles knotted on arms and legs and vast wealth 
piled up around him. The best stories are the true 
ones, and this is the true story of the awakening of 
a great city. One might almost say that Newark 
was discovered a second time; that . is, that the 
people living here decided, about three quarters of 
a century ago, that Newark should not stay a village 
forever, but must awake, grow, expand. 

59. Keeping Awake. 
To-day, the people of our great city know that, 
if they would keep the prosperity they now enjoy 
they must look constantly for new methods and 
new inventions and unite always the spirit of 
industry with the spirit of progress. In fact, to be 
successful in each new period the city must be on 
the alert to discover new possibilities within itself. 
Newark must never slumber again as it did for 
nearly a hundred and twenty-five years. It should 
always grow in activity and beauty, and all of us 
must do our part to aid its growth. 



THE STORY OF ITS 
PROSPERITY 




NEWARK FROM THE PASSAIC BY NIGHT. 
AN IMPRESSION. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY 

Newark was a city in size as early as 1830, yet 
still conducted itself as if it were a village. Town 
business was done very much as it had been ever 
since the settlers came, with town meetings twice a 
year, and oftener if they seemed necessary. There 
were few officials to attend to the many kinds of 
public business. All who were entitled to vote 
joined in discussions at town meetings over every 
little thing that had to be done, and even the smallest 
things were often very slow of accomplishment. 
Slowly, very slowly, the cautious leaders of 
Newark's prosperity found they needed a better 
way of running their town, and in 1833 the first 
step was taken in this direction. Permission was 
obtained from the State legislature to divide Newark 
into four wards. For 160 years the community had 
been content to be what is called a township. With 
its division into four wards it became a town. 

It is worth noting that this step in Newark's 
advancement had in it something that reminds one 
of the founding of the town — the number four. The 



go A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

settlers came from four towns in Connecticut, New 
Haven, Milford, Branford, and Guilford; they 
started their town at the four corners of what are 
now Market and Broad streets, each community 
taking a corner for itself. When the four wards 
were formed in 1833 the four historic corners were 
used again. The wards were made to start from 
the corners and were called, North, South, East 
and West. It is interesting also, to note, that in 
founding the town, the settlers selected four texts 
from the Old Testament for their guidance. 

60. Newark Becomes a City: 1836. 

The town form of government, so long in coming, 
lasted only three years, and then the real city began 
its life with much the same form of government that 
we have to-day, the first mayor being William 
Halsey. The number of town officers was increased, 
there being more than ever for the city to do in 
taking care of itself. 

For many years after the War for Independence, 
Newark had but two constables to preserve the peace. 
As the factories and their workers increased in 
number the town found it must have more men to see 
that order was kept, and about the time the city 
was formed there were twelve constables, who were 
the policemen of their day. They had big rattles 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 91 

which they sounded by whirling them around and 
around in the hand; these they sprung when there 
was trouble and they needed help. They had to call 
for assistance quite often, for the boys and young 
men who worked in the shops liked to have fun at 
night. Sometimes the boys took the gates from in 
front of the houses facing on Military Park and 
burned them in the park in big bonfires. The 
constables had all they could do to stop such pranks. 
The whole country around was waking up. 
People in all the neighboring cities and towns were 
finding out what an immense country this is, and 
that there was a large number of people to be fed 
and clothed and housed and transported from place 
to place. Newark's brightest men were coming to 
understand that if the town was to become powerful 
and helpful among its neighbors the people must 
work with a more united effort to make it so. New 
and quicker and better ways must be found for doing 
all the things that now had to be done to keep the 
city prosperous and to make it the equal of all its 
sister cities in the matters of neatness, comfort, 
intelligence and general progressiveness. 

61. The First Railroad. 

Just when the stage coach seemed to be flourish- 
ing most, railroads came. The first one was put 



92 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

in operation early in December, 1833. It ran from 
Jersey City to the corner of Broad and William 
streets, where the old City Hall stood until the 
winter of io,07-'o8. This City Hall in the early 
railroad days was the City Hotel. Trains going 
to Jersey City stopped first at Chandler's Hotel on 
Broad street, about opposite Mechanic street; next 
at Market street near where the Pennsylvania 
station now is ; and then at the foot of Centre street, 
just before crossing the river. In those days it was 
not thought safe to run locomotives over some parts 
of the soft and spongy marshes, so at intervals along 
the way the cars were drawn by horses for short 
distances. This railroad was conducted by the 
New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company. 
It shook one up to ride on it almost as much as did 
the stage coach, the roadbed was so rough and the 
machinery so crude. 

The next year prominent men from different parts 
of northern New Jersey met in a Newark tavern to 
take the first steps for the building of the Morris 
and Essex Railroad. Newark, as well as other 
places in this part of the State, was really suffering 
for means to carry away the great quantities of 
goods it was making and selling, and to bring back 
from other places the things it was buying. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 93 

The growth of the railroads, which soon gave up 
horses for locomotives, slowly but surely put an end 
to the day of stage coaches, and the big, clumsy 
vehicles with their four or six horses which came 
clattering up to the Newark hotels from Jersey City, 
New York, Morristown, Elizabeth and other places, 
became fewer and fewer. Change and progress 
were in the air. Newark was reaching out and 
getting into closer touch with the rest of the world 
by means of railroads, the canal and shipping on 
river and bay. 

Next, the call became loud for better motive 
power for shops and mills than that to be had from 
a water-fall or from a slow-moving horse or ox, and 
steam was introduced, as was told in the last chapter. 
In 1836 there were one hundred and thirty-six 
factories in Newark and new ones were being opened 
every month. As it became easier to get to and 
from other places, the shops and factories found 
it easier to sell more goods, and more men and boys 
were constantly needed to work in the shops to make 
the increasing quantity of goods. 

62. The Young City Thrives. 

And so more people came to the town. They 
came from all the small places in this part of New 
Jersey, strong young men and boys who were tired 



94 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

of the quiet life of their native villages and weary 
of working on farms. Soon the town was filled to 
overflowing, and many a staid old mansion was 
turned into a boarding house to make room for the 
little army of workers that was now streaming in. 

Not all the workers were found in this State. 
Foreigners were pouring into this country by way of 
New York and some of them upon landing heard of 
the busy little town on the Passaic and came here. 
Among the first were the Irish. No one knows just 
when the first Irish immigrants reached Newark, 
but there were probably about thirty families of 
them here in 1828, the men and boys working in 
the foundries and in the coach factories and hat 
shops. The Germans, too, soon learned that work 
was to be had here, and as early as 1833 there were 
at least seventy-five from the Fatherland in Newark. 
These must have written letters home to tell others 
what a good place this was to live in, for only two 
years later there were three hundred Germans in 
Newark. 

For a time comparatively few people from other 
countries were to be found in Newark. All who 
came soon found work, and every now and then a 
sturdy workman who had come to this country with 
little in the world that he could call his own besides 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 95 

the clothes on his back, began to lay the foundations 
of a fortune. Among them were some of the men 
who have helped make Newark the great and power- 
ful city it is to-day. These were not only willing to 
work but they were quick to discover new ways for 
making things. 

The Irish who first came to Newark did for the 
most part the work that Italians, Poles and Hun- 
garians now do here; and the Germans when they 
arrived in great numbers in the forties and fifties of 
the last century, shared with the Irish in doing the 
hard manual labor. In 1848 and 1849 an d in the 
next few years the Germans came in great numbers. 
There was a revolution in Germany, and brave men 
and women who had sought for liberty and could 
not find it in the old country hoped to find it here. 

In Harper's Magazine for October, 1876, we find 
an interesting picture of German life in this city. 
It says : "A wondrous tide of Germans has flooded 
Newark, dropping into all the vacant lots [and there 
were very many of them then], and spreading itself 
over the flats to the east and the hills to the south 
and west, until it numbers one-third of the voting 
population. The German quarter on the hills is one 
of the interesting features of the city. A section 
nearly two miles square is a snug, compact, well- 



96 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

paved city within a city, giving evidence of neither 
poverty nor riches. The Germans who dwell here 
are chiefly employed in the factories and nearly all 
own their own houses. They live economically and 
save money. German habits and German customs 
appear on every side. The women carry heavy 
bundles, great baskets and sometimes barrels on 
their heads. Wherever there is room the Germans 
have gardens and raise vegetables for Newark 
market. At early morning the women may be seen 
driving their one-horse wagons into town." 

63. Hard Times of 1837. 

In 1837 Newark was stricken by the hard times 
which swept over the entire country. Some of the 
city's industries suffered severely and have not fully 
recovered to this day. Before the manufacturers 
of certain lines of goods could recover from the 
misfortunes other cities and towns had begun to 
make the same goods and had taken the markets that 
had formerly been supplied by Newark factories. 

In 1837 the population of the city was 20,000, and 
the next year was but 16,000. Business was poor, 
shops were closed and many people went to other 
cities and towns looking for work. Not until about 
1843 did the city regain its former vigor. Since 
that date it has gained steadily with one or two short 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 97 

periods of depression. In i860 there were 73,000 
people here. The next year there were but 70,000, 
for many Newark men had shouldered muskets and 
marched off to the defense of the Union in the 
Civil War. In 1863 more men went to the war, and 
the number of inhabitants dropped to 68,000. In 
1864 it had risen again to 70,000, and at the end of 
the year 1865, the war being over, and the soldiers 
returned home, it was estimated at 87,428. 
64. A Time of Prosperity: 1849. 
The town was teeming with life in 1849. A 
shrewd observer wrote: "People appear to be 
flocking from every direction to share with us in 
the luxury of living in so pleasant and beautiful a 
city as Newark, where any one who is willing to 
work can earn enough to make ends meet and have 
something over at the end of the year, if economy 
is exercised." This writer calls those times "years 
of plenty." In 1845 there were over 3,800 dwellings 
in the city. In 1908 there were more than ten times 
that number, and still increasing steadily. 

65. How they Fought Fires. 

Newark in the early days did not have many fires, 

so it did not pay much heed to the talk of the wise 

men who often said a fire department was needed. 

During the War for Independence the British 



9 8 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

soldiers now and then burned buildings in the town ; 
but after the war was over few thought there would 
be any more serious danger from flames, until a 
handsome home fronting on Military Park burned 
down. Soon after this a little hand-engine was 
bought and a fire company formed. Long hose 
was not used in those days. The little engine was 
taken as close to the fire as possible and short iron 
or wooden pipe used to throw the water on the 
flames. Horses were not thought of for hauling 
the engine to the fires. The men of the fire com- 
pany enjoyed hauling the engine themselves, pulling 
it by a long rope. 

66. The Old Hand Engines. 
During the war of 1812 there were several fires 
in the city, which many thought were started by 
some one who sympathized with the British. Soon 
after this war a second engine was bought, and a 
second fire company formed. Both companies 
wanted the fine new engine and there was a great 
wrangle about it. Finally, to settle the dispute it 
was decided to toss up a coin and cry "heads" or 
"tails." The first and oldest company won the toss 
and got the new engine. In 181 9 a third engine 
was bought. This was made in Newark and the 
people were very proud of it for that reason. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 99 



67. The Great Fire of 1836. 

In 1836 there were half a dozen hand engines and 
as many companies. It was in that year that 
Newark had to fight its first big fire. On the south 
side of Market street, a little east of Broad, were 
a number of boarding houses and in one of these, 
a small, two-story frame structure, a boarding place 
for Germans, the fire began. The flames spread 
rapidly. Fire companies came from New York, 
Rahway, Elizabeth and Belleville. At one time it 
looked as if the entire eastern part of the city would 
be consumed. The firemen fought bravely for five 
hours. Two naval officers who came from Eliza- 
beth tried to stop the flames by blowing up buildings 
in their path, but this did no more good than it did 
in the great San Francisco fire following the earth- 
quake of 1906. Nearly all the buildings on the 
block bounded by Broad, Mulberry, Market and 
Mechanic streets were destroyed, as well as the 
buildings on the south side of Mechanic street. The 
State Bank building on the corner of Broad and 
Mechanic streets, and the First Presbyterian Church 
were saved only after a most desperate battle. The 
town was exhausted after the fearful fight, and 
business was at a standstill for a few days. It was 
years before the burned district was rebuilt. 



ioo A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

In 1845 the city had another great alarm. Five 
houses were destroyed on Broad street opposite 
Trinity Church and the church was on fire seven 
times from sparks. Highly colored pictures were 
made of this fire and no doubt were eagerly bought, 
for colored pictures were something quite new at 
that time and naturally popular. 

68. The First Steam Fire-Engines. 

The firemen were all volunteers, and some of the 
companies were composed of the most prominent 
men in the city. Nearly every house had its fire 
buckets, made of leather, and you usually found 
them hanging from a peg in the front hall. They 
were as familiar objects in homes as hat racks are 
in the homes of the present generation. 

The first steam fire engine was bought in i860. 
The volunteer firemen were not pleased to see it 
come, and Newark was slower than some other cities 
in taking up with this invention. After the first 
one came another soon followed; then the old com- 
panies began slowly to disappear ; and gradually the 
paid fire department which we know to-day, one 
of the best in all the country, was built up. 

69. One of the First Schools. 

One of the first schools in Newark, a pay school, 
stood on the south side of Market street a little east 



^\-^S=£\ J II MJl I 




m 

-r 

CO 



102 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

of Halsey. About 1817 the floor of the town's only 
church was taken up and a new one laid. The old 
floor was put down in the school house, which before 
this very probably had no floor at all save the solid 
earth. A little later the town decided to expend 
$500 every year for the schooling of poor children. 
When the town was made a city in 1836, four 
free schools were started, one in each ward. These 
schools were not at first in buildings by themselves, 
but were opened wherever rooms could be conven- 
iently rented. Children of the poor went to these 
four schools, which for a time did not grow very 
rapidly, as parents did not like to send their children 
to them ; it seemed like accepting a charity from the 
city, and people with any feeling of independence 
did not like to have everybody know they were too 
poor to pay for schooling. This feeling in time 
passed away; for parents gradually realized that 
every family had a right to send its children to the 
public schools, since the head of every family paid 
taxes for their maintenance. 

70. More Schools. 

There were so many people in Newark in the 

thirties of the last century that the question of 

schooling became a more and more important one. 

Workmen who came here from other cities and 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 103 

towns complained that there were no good schools 
for their children. The free schools were not very 
well managed, and the city authorities began to 
realize that they must pay more attention to educa- 
tional matters. When Newark became a city a 
school committee was provided. 

71. The Board of Education. 

In 1850 this school committee determined that 
still better schools must be had, so the Legislature 
was asked to make a law permitting Newark to 
spend more money for this purpose. The next 
year the Board of Education was established and 
then the city began to build school houses. It has 
never stopped building them since, and it probably 
never will. There are many more children in 
Newark's schools to-day than there were men, 
women and children in all the city in 1850. In 
1908 over 60,000 children were on the public school 
rolls. Early in the fifties the High School was 
established at the corner of Linden and Washington 
streets. It was the second high school in the United 
States. Newark's summer schools were among the 
first to be opened in the country. 

72. Overcoming an Old Idea. 

But, as already said, it took a long time after this 
to get most of the people of the city to send their 



104 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

children to the public schools. The old idea that 
it was something of a disgrace to go to a public or 
"common" school, as they were once called, had 
taken very firm root, and did not die for many years. 
It is a very good thing that such ideas as this are 
gone forever. The city, the state and the whole 
country have been much better off since the public 
schools came. 

In 1848 the Newark Library Association opened 
its doors. Since then it has been possible for 
Newark people to get books to read without buying 
them. The Library Association was a private 
concern, not owned by the city. Unless you were 
a member of the Association you had to pay some- 
thing for every book you took out. This went on 
for forty years when, under a new law, the Free 
Public Library was started. Since then, if Newark 
people do not have books to read it is because they 
do not go to the library and ask for them. 

73. When the Passaic Was Beautiful. 

It is hard to-day to realize the rich and sylvan 
beauty of the Passaic river in the days when Newark 
was a small but busy city in the two decades before 
the Civil War. The banks were charming with 
their stretches of soft green, dotted here and there 
with groves and unrestrained undergrowth. Most 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 105 

of the dwellings were the homes of prominent 
families. They were to be met with all the way 
from where Kearny Castle now is, on the east bank 
of the river, to the stretches opposite Belleville and 
beyond; while on the Newark side they were 
scattered along the hillside north from the neighbor- 
hood of Bridge street. The river was as clear as 
crystal. Many of the families living near the stream 
had their own little docks and boathouses and paid 
their visits to each other back and forth across the 
Passaic by means of boats. There was good fishing 
in the waters and good hunting in the woods along 
the banks. Fishermen made good catches of shad 
with nets. It was a charming, peaceful neighbor- 
hood, and it is no wonder people were attracted from 
New York City to build their houses on the banks 
of the Passaic, in Newark and further up. 

74. Cockloft Hall. 

A hundred years ago Gouverneur Kemble owned 
a stately mansion on the Newark side of the river. 
It stood at a commanding point on the river's bank, 
near what is now the northeast corner of Gouverneur 
street and Mt. Pleasant avenue. 

It stands there still, although it is much changed. 
Hither came one of the most famous American 
writers of his time, Washington Irving, and with 



106 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

him John Paulding and others. Kemble used to 
entertain them in a pretty little summer house 
which stood on the edge of the hillside and over- 
looked the river. The young men — for Irving and 
his companions were young then — used to delight to 
look out upon the beautiful scene and enjoy them- 
selves together. Irving was writing his Salmagundi 
papers at this time, and in them he calls the Gouver- 
neur street house "Cockloft Hall," and the Kembles 
"the Cocklofts." 

Forty years afterwards people living along the 
river formed a reading circle, influenced perhaps by 
the literary spirit which Irving's stay in the neigh- 
borhood had given the locality. They used to gather 
from far up and down stream for meetings of this 
circle. In those days the river neighborhood from 
Cockloft Hall northward was considered out of 
town, for houses were few and far apart. 

Traces of the good old riverside days may be 
found by the observant stroller to-day. A little of 
the old order of things invests what is still known 
as the Gully road, which runs along the northern 
edge of Mount Pleasant Cemetery. It was here 
that Henry William Herbert lived. He was known 
fifty years ago the country over as a writer, under 
the name of Frank Forrester. 



108 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

There were many other people in the city in those 
days who loved good books, good pictures and good 
music but they were split up into little companies 
like that along the river. They enjoyed those things 
among their own circles, while the city, as a whole, 
was too busy in its shops and factories to think 
much of the finer things or to spend time on books 
and pictures and music. Newark, from early in the 
last century, was little more than a great workshop 
until near the close of the nineteenth century. It 
was so busy with its shops and mills that it did 
not pay much attention to making itself neat and 
attractive. Nowadays we know that we must do 
something besides work; we must make our city 
something more than a huge factory. We can be 
better men and women and children, and happier, 
too, if our city is more beautiful to live in. And 
we are trying to make it so. 

75. On the Eve of Civil War. 

The people of Newark, in common with most 
others living in this country, began, as early as i860, 
to realize that a crisis in the affairs of the nation 
was at hand. There had been many signs, for 
several years, that a very grave problem would 
soon have to be settled, but the people had contin- 
ued to hope that in some way the difficulties between 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 109 

North and South might be adjusted without blood- 
shed. By the time of Abraham Lincoln's election 
to the Presidency, in the fall of i860, thinking men 
and women wore solemn faces, and they often asked 
each other if this man whom the country had chosen 
to fill its highest office, were great enough to carry 
it through the dark days that were at hand. 

Newark was privileged to see this man a few 
weeks before he took the oath of office as President. 
While on his way to Washington Mr. Lincoln left 
his train at Market street station and attended a 
reception given him by the officers of the city 
government and the leading citizens. This was on 
February 21, 1861. Mr. Lincoln was driven 
through the principal streets of the city during a 
heavy snow storm in a coach drawn by four white 
horses. One of those in the carriage with him was 
the illustrious Colonel Ellsworth of the New York 
Zouaves, who was soon to be shot down while in 
the act of removing a Confederate flag from the 
staff of a hotel, in Alexandria. The president-elect 
was greeted with great enthusiasm. The occasion 
was described by a New York newspaper of the day, 
in the following language: 

"The scene in Broad street while the procession 
was passing, was magnificent; although the crowd 



no A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

was great the width of the street prevented any 
confusion, and this noble street, of which the people 
of Newark are justly proud, must have made a 
favorable impression upon the mind of Mr. Lincoln. 
There were not less than twenty-five thousand people 
in the streets. * * * Altogether, the Newark 
reception reflected credit upon the city, and was, we 
predict, as agreeable an ovation as Mr. Lincoln has 
received since he commenced his pilgrimage to the 
White House." 

At the reception the Mayor of the city made 
an address of welcome to the distinguished visitor. 
Mr. Lincoln spoke a few words in reply. They 
were good words and were no doubt remembered by 
those who heard them, when the times of greatest 
stress and trial, which were then so near, actually 
arrived. They were as follows : 

"Mr. Mayor, I thank you for this reception you 
have given me in your city. The only response I 
can make is that I will bring a heart similarly 
devoted to the Union. With my own ability I can 
not hope to succeed ; I hope to be sustained by Divine 
Providence in the work I have been called upon to 
perform for this great, free, happy and intelligent 
people. Without this I can not succeed. I thank 
you again for this kind reception." 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. in 

From that day the majority of the Newark 
people never lost faith in "Old Abe." They did 
not forget what he had said about needing help. 
They responded splendidly to his call for soldiers 
and did all they could to help hold up his hands in 
the terrible days that were to come. 

76. A Great Public Meeting. 
In the stormy days just before the War for 
Independence meetings of patriots were held in the 
Court House which was then a plain old building on 
Broad street nearly opposite the First Presbyterian 
Church. There fiery speeches were made, and there 
were adopted the first resolutions passed in all New 
Jersey supporting Congress in its efforts to win 
independence. Ninety years afterwards the people 
of Newark were again summoned to give their 
aid in carrying on a great war, and once more 
patriots gathered at the Court House. This time 
the gathering was far larger than any of those held 
just before the War for Independence, too large to 
get into the Court House; so it assembled outside 
in the triangular space at the junction of Market 
street and Springfield avenue. Nearly all of 
Newark's leading men were there, and many of them 
made patriotic addresses. Men said it was one of 
the most noteworthy gatherings they ever knew. 



ii2 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

Newark was more united against the common 
foe than it had been during the War for Indepen- 
dence, for in Newark in 1776 there were many 
Tories. In mid-April, 1861, while the people were 
not unanimous in their support of the Union, the 
great majority were ready to make every sacrifice 
to support the constitution, and people of every race 
and religious creed and of every walk in life 
gathered at the great court house meeting. 

The day after the great meeting Major Anderson, 
the gallant defender of Fort Sumter, came to 
Newark. He had intended to be present at the 
meeting, but had misunderstood the date. He was 
enthusiastically received, nearly the whole city 
turning out to greet and honor him. 

77. Newark's Southern Trade. 
Ever since Southern planters early in the last 
century in journeying through Newark on their way 
to New York, had noticed the fine shoes made here 
and had ordered some to be sent to them in their 
Southern homes, Newark had been sending its 
manufactures into Dixie. For more than a half 
century it had been supplying the South with a large 
part of its shoes, for blacks and for whites, and had 
also been sending great quantities of carriages, 
harnesses and saddlery hardware to the same region. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 113 

Many Newark manufacturers feared their business 
would be swept away by a war between North and 
South, and did not see where they were going to get 
other business. They opposed the war before it 
came and it was some time after it began before 
they were reconciled to it. But once the war was 
well begun business came to Newark in the way of 
contracts for materials needed for the soldiers. 
Newark was a very busy place during the Civil War, 
for its factories were kept humming getting out vast 
quantities of leather belts, buckles, harnesses, 
saddles, shirts, and cartridge boxes for the army; 
and boys and girls were set at work in the shops 
while their older sisters, mothers, aunts and the old 
folks took work home with them. 

78. Going to the Front. 

The city became terribly in earnest over the war. 
It did not rest with simply making things, but sent 
many of its youths and men to the front to fight, 
not a few of whom never came back. Boys scarcely 
out of school and some who had not completed 
their studies in the public schools, joined a regiment 
and put on the uniform. 

For four long years Newark streets resounded 
to the tread of marching feet. Regiment after regi- 
ment was either recruited here or passed through 



ii4 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

this city on its way southward. Part of the time 
tents were standing in Military Park and scores of 
young men went there to enlist. The park had been 
a training ground for the settlers nearly two 
hundred years before, when the men were required 
to assemble there and drill that they might be ready 
to fight the Indians should the savages become 
quarrelsome. Over its turf patriot soldiers and 
hostile redcoats marched during the War for Inde- 
pendence; and now, after nearly a century, it was 
again the place for warlike preparations. 

79. Camp Frelinghuysen. 

Many of the regiments formed in the northern 
part of the State were prepared for service at Camp 
Frelinghuysen. This camp was near the western 
edge of Newark, close to the Canal, near the lower 
half of Branch Brook Park. Newark was then a 
very lively place. As the war went on the people 
came to know that the departure of a regiment was 
a very serious thing. At first they had looked upon 
the marching away of troops as a time for some- 
thing like picnicking. Soon, however, as the 
accounts of battles came in and the long list of dead 
and wounded bore the names of many who had 
marched out of Newark, the faces that looked on 
departing troops were often stained with tears. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 115 

80. War's Serious Side. 

War had become a very serious and terrible thing. 
Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, who stood 
on the streets to wave good-by to their dear ones, 
often went home to pray for their safety. One 
Sunday morning a regiment about to go to war 
marched from Camp Frelinghuysen to Washington 
Park, where it rested as the people of the Second 
Presbyterian Church came out and bade it farewell. 
Before another Sunday came around that regiment 
had fought in a dreadful battle, Antietam, and many 
of its brave men had given their lives for their 
country on that bloody field. 

The city could not separate itself from the great 
struggle even if it would have done so. For a long 
period there was a hospital in a large factory build- 
ing near the river, not far from the foot of Centre 
street and another just near the Market street 
bridge over the river. Wounded soldiers were 
always to be seen about the streets, as the doctors 
made them seek light and air as soon as they were 
well enough to leave their cots, 

81. General Kearny. 

Quite early in the war one of the most dashing- 
heroes who went out of all the North into the fray, 
General Philip Kearny, was killed and his body 



n6 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 



brought here, to his home in what is now Kearny. 
Kearny Castle as we see it to-day looks very much 
as it did when the body of the hero was brought 
back to it and later taken from it for burial. General 
Kearny was born on lower Broadway, New York, 
where there are now nothing but skyscrapers. Much 
of his childhood and boyhood he passed in the 
Kearny house in this city, which stands on Belleville 
avenue nearly opposite Kearny street. The grounds 
behind the house extended to the river's edge. 
When Kearny, a grown man, came back from his 
campaigns with the French in Algiers, his spirited 
horses were for a time kept in stables back of the 
Kearny house on Belleville avenue. Old men, most 
of them now dead, used to tell of seeing those 
mettlesome steeds galloping and curvetting over the 
hillside where are now houses packed closely 
together. The general built what is now called 
Kearny Castle a little while before the war and lived 
there part of the time. There were few houses on 
either side of the river, and as the general looked 
westward across the river from the castle he saw 
a delightful stretch of open country with here and 
there a comfortable farm house. 

It was a beautiful place for a mansion, crowning 
the lower end of the long ridge on which Kearny 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 117 

and Arlington are now perched, and it is no wonder 
the general loved the neighborhood. A little further 
up the ridge was the home of his aristocratic neigh- 
bors, the Rutherfords. The Rutherford home is 
now the main building of the Soldiers' Home. In 
that Home to-day are some of the brave men who 
fought in Kearny's brigade and who grew to love 
him for the brilliant and fearless leader that he was. 
On the day that Kearny's body was taken from 
the castle, to be buried in New York, from Trinity 
Church, it was borne on a gun carriage, and his 
war horse, with saddle empty, was led behind. 

The cemeteries of Newark are thickly studded 
with the graves of brave soldiers and sailors who 
fought in that fearful four years' war. 

82. The First Horse Car Line. 

Newark's first horse car line ran from the Market 
street depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad, up 
Market street to Broad, along Broad to Orange 
street and thence to Roseville and Orange. The 
company that built it was known as the Orange 
and Newark Horse Car Company. The first and 
trial trip over the line was made on May 28, 1862. 
On June 6 of the same year the cars began to run 
for the accommodation of the public, and the jingle 
of the car bells has been heard in Newark streets, 



n8 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

with ever-increasing volume, ever since. The town 
was much upset for a time after the cars began to 
run, for many persons did not approve of their 
being run on Sundays. This prejudice died out, 
as many, many others had disappeared before it. 

83. Newark's Drinking Water. 

There are few cities in all the United States that 
have better drinking water than Newark. People 
from all parts of the country when they visit 
Newark speak of the excellence of the water, and 
often tell how inferior is the water they have to 
drink at home. It is a great thing to have good 
water and an abundance of it; a city cannot keep 
well if it does not have it; sickness is sure to come 
often if the water contains disease germs. 

84. Old Wells and Reservoirs. 

In the old days the settlers dug wells, and there 
are traces of some of these wells to be found around 
the city to this day. But the wells have not been 
used for drinking purposes for many a year. As 
long ago as 1800 Newark built an aqueduct and the 
water was led from it to houses and other buildings 
through wooden water pipes laid in the streets. 
Now and then workmen digging in the streets find 
traces of these clumsy old pipes. 

The first reservoir was on the north side of 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 119 

Orange street a few blocks above High street. 
Later the city built one on the heights of Belleville, 
pumping water to it from wells that were driven 
close to the Passaic river. You can still see the 
pumping station on the river's edge in Belleville. 

Fully thirty years ago the people began to be 
troubled over their water supply. They could see 
that the sewage which was being poured into the 
river by all the cities and towns along the banks 
above Newark must sooner or later make the river 
water very foul and unfit to drink. 

85. The Present Supply of Water. 

After a very long time a new supply was found, 
in the beautiful country at the northern end of the 
State known as the Pequannock Valley. Our water 
is now brought from that valley nearly thirty miles 
through two big steel pipes, one of them four feet 
in diameter and the other about three and a half, 
either of them big enough for a small boy or girl 
to stand up in without bumping the head. The 
water rights, the pipes and all the other things 
necessary to bring the water to this city and take 
it through pipes into peoples' houses, are worth ten 
million dollars. There is also a fine reservoir at 
Great Notch, north of Montclair, where water for 
Newark is brought from the Pequannock Valley 



120 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

and stored. And the people are thankful that even 
if it did cost a large sum, their drinking water is 
pure and good and abundant and brings no sick- 
ness to those who drink it. 

The purity of the water that Newark now enjoys 
was made a matter of record over a hundred years 
ago, when Alexander Hamilton sought to learn 
where the purest and softest water in all the States 
then established was to be had. Hamilton was 
Secretary of the Treasury at the time and deeply 
interested in promoting manufactures. Pure and 
soft water was said to be essential to the manu- 
facture of the best leather, and Hamilton hoped to 
encourage leather making in this country by show- 
ing manufacturers where the streams best adapted 
for their purposes were located. So, under his 
direction, the government employed a number of 
American and English chemists to go about over 
the entire area of the States, examining the streams. 
In the report made by the chemists it was found 
that the waters of the Pequannock watershed in 
this State were declared to be the purest. 

86. Street Lighting. 
Until after Newark became a city, in 1836, it had 
no street lights, and people out and about the town 
after nightfall had to pick their steps very carefully. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 121 



They often carried clumsy lanterns, made of tin or 
some other light metal, the light coming through 
holes punched in the tin. Tallow candles were 
chiefly used for lighting. Broad and Market streets 
and the space about Military Park must have looked 
strange with the people lighting their way along 
with lanterns, which glowed like so many fireflies. 

87. The First Gas Light. 

It was not until 1847 that anything like syste- 
matic street lighting was tried. In that year four 
miles of gas mains were laid in the principal streets 
and gas was burned here for the first time. People 
did not believe it was possible to make gas, send 
it through pipes in the earth to stores and houses, 
and then burn it. They thought the idea a foolish 
dream. When they saw the lights burning, how- 
ever, they began slowly to realize that it was not 
the inventors, but they, who had been foolish in 
opposing so useful an invention. Of course, once 
it was shown that gas would burn and give what 
was then considered a great and glorious light, 
there was an urgent demand for more pipes in the 
streets and the mains were rapidly extended. 

88. Edison in Newark. 

"Almost everything is made in Newark that is 
made by man," wrote a visitor in the seventies. 



122 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

"Take a tour among the workshops and you will 
no longer wonder why Newark's banks never fail. 
There are prodigious manufactories of hats, silks, 
iron works, soap, tin, brushes, steam engines and 
so forth. The records of the Patent Office at Wash- 
ington show that Newark has contributed more 
useful inventions to industrial progress than any 
other American city. In one year, 1873, upward of 
one hundred patents were issued to Newarkers 
alone." 

"The making of telegraph instruments has been 
attended with important inventions," the visitor 
went on to say; "Thomas A. Edison, who origi- 
nated the gold stock indicator used in Wall street, 
made thirty-six hundred of them in Newark in 
three years, many of them being exported to 
Europe." 

Edison did much of his experimenting upon 
electric lighting in Newark in a shop in Mechanic 
street. He invented the speaking part of the tele- 
phone in Newark and also the quadruplex telegraph. 
By this last device four messages may be sent over 
one wire at the same moment without interfering 
with each other. The first incandescent light was 
made in Menlo Park shortly after Mr. Edison 
removed to Newark. 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 123 

89. Edward Weston. 

The whole United States and in fact all the 
world, owes much to Newark for the development 
of the electric light. Mr. Edison, as has just been 
stated, made many of his experiments upon electric 
lighting in his Newark shop, and there was another 
genius working busily here on somewhat the same 
lines at about the same time. This was Edward 
Weston, whose great factories at Waverly are now 
familiar to railroad travelers passing eastward and 
westward in and out of the city. In the late 
seventies of the last century he came to Newark and 
soon had a workshop on Washington street very 
near to Market. There he and a few other men 
opened the first factory in all the country devoted to 
the making of dynamo-electric machines and similar 
apparatus. The business grew rapidly. 

90. Making Electric Lighting Possible. 

His machines took the place of all the older and 
far more costly apparatus. Then he improved 
electric lamps themselves, both arc and incandescent. 
He invented ways of making them that were much 
less costly than any that had been employed before. 
It is not too much to say that Mr. Weston was one 
of the very first in all the world so to harness 
electricity as to make the light produced by it really 



124 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

of practical daily use at a moderate cost. 

91. Newark's Proud Record. 

But to tell in a little history like this, of all the 
achievements of Newark inventors and manufactur- 
ers would be impossible. The list would be a very 
long one, and it would make a very interesting 
story by itself. Articles made by Newark men are 
now sent all over the world wherever civilization has 
found its way. Newark has had for nearly a 
hundred years a fine reputation for its ability to 
make things. If it is to keep in the future its 
proud place among America's great manufacturing 
cities it will have to teach the boys and girls of to- 
day who are later to work in the shops how to do 
things with great skill. The city needs the best of 
training schools. Industrial schools are one of 
Newark's greatest needs to-day. 

92. The City of the Future. 

With a population of between 325,000 and 350,- 
000 in 1908, Newark stands sixteenth among the 
cities of the country in population, and in its 
industrial life stands even higher. It is eleventh in 
the value of manufactured product. The city is 
growing far more rapidly than most of its residents 
realize, and it is estimated that there are fifty thou- 
sand more people living here than there were in 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 125 

1900. The city has outgrown the transportation 
facilities for both freight and passengers, and one 
of the great problems of the immediate future is 
the providing of greater facilities for the move- 
ment of the people and goods, not only to and from 
the city and its neighborhood, but within the city 
and its suburbs. The city has also outgrown the 
system of local government, and a new charter is 
one of the necessities which will soon be supplied. 

Newark in 1908 had over 180 miles of paved 
streets, 103 miles of trolley tracks, and 21 trolley 
lines. During the year of 1907 its post office 
handled 118,283,450 pieces of mail matter. Within 
the city limits are nearly 600 acres of parks. In 
1908 it was estimated that Newark had 4,017 
manufacturing plants. 

But great as Newark is to-day, far greater will 
it surely become before the boys and girls now in 
the primary and grammar schools are grown to be 
men and women. New York needs more room. 
Its ground is very precious and not many more new 
shops and factories and other business buildings 
can be erected there without tearing down other 
good buildings. It is very expensive to do this. The 
railroads need more room to handle their trains, for 
the West is pouring its goods and its people into 



126 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

New York in ever-increasing quantities. Soon 
New York will be so crowded with people and 
goods as to make it very hard to do business 
there; in fact it is now quite difficult to keep all 
kinds of activity in the metropolis moving smoothly. 

93. The Era of the Subway. 

Men are burrowing tunnels under the North or 
Hudson River. The first two of six North River 
tunnels were opened on February 25, 1908, with 
impressive ceremonies. Every one rejoiced, for all 
knew that this was the beginning of a new epoch in 
New Jersey's history. For Newark it means far 
more than its people probably realize. From the 
crowded city on Manhattan Island will soon come 
thousands to make their homes in and near this 
city. There will be great depots to arrange for the 
movement of these trains under the river and into 
New York, and these depots must be put back of 
Jersey City in some open place where there is room. 
Where is that room to be found? Nowhere but 
near Newark and the towns and cities close by it. 
The great stretches of meadows which you see as 
you look out of the car windows going to New 
York, are some day to disappear. They will not 
vanish all at once, for there are between forty and 
fifty square miles of these marshes. It will take a 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 127 

very long time still, to fill them; but the work is 
swiftly going on, and part of the space will soon be 
taken with the yards and shops and stations that 
will be needed when the tunnels are done. Then 
other shops and buildings will be put up near these 
stations, and thus the meadows will be peopled with 
human life. Thus out of the marshes will rise a 
mighty stretch of buildings and yards with mazes 
of railways and great docks. 

94. Meadow Improvement. 

The United States Government is helping in this 
gigantic work. It is now deepening the channel of 
the Passaic and the Hackensack rivers so that big 
ocean-going ships may come around from New 
York bay to the docks that will be built along the 
meadow's edges. There is no more room for docks 
in New York, or in Jersey City or Hoboken, or in 
Brooklyn. Docks may be built cheaper on the 
Newark meadows, and so they will come. Newark 
itself may some day build great docks on the 
meadows to help on the new era of progress and 
prosperity. A ship canal by means of which ocean- 
going vessels may come close up to the railroads 
and unload their cargoes and receive new ones has 
long been a dream of many public spirited Newark- 
ers. The mud and sand taken out to provide for 



128 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

the canal could be used to fill up the meadows and 
make them solid earth. In fact, the dredgings from 
the channel in the Bay and the lower Passaic were 
being transferred to the marshes in 1907 and 1908 
by a hydraulic process, and hundreds of acres of 
good ground have been made in this way. 

95. A Cleaner and Prettier City. 
All this growth will help to make Newark itself 
a much bigger and more prosperous city, and little 
by little the city should grow more attractive to 
look at and to live in. We should all try from this 
very time to have our city made more pleasing to 
the eye, so that strangers will say of it that it is 
indeed beautiful, just as strangers did when they 
came into Newark the little village a hundred and 
fifty and even two hundred years ago. 

96. The Greater Newark. 
And now in these late days of Newark's history, 
many signs point to the possibility of the return, 
sooner or later, of the communities which long years 
ago, left the mother town and started out for them- 
selves, like enterprising children. Newark may 
truly be called the mother of towns. Once her 
boundaries took in all of what is now Essex County. 
Little by little companies of Newark people went 
out into the broad lands of Bloomfield, the Oranges, 



THE STORY OF ITS PROSPERITY. 129 

Irvington, Montclair, and other neighborhoods and 
founded independent towns and cities. Indeed, 
Newark even sent colonies as far off as Morristown. 
For over a century after these small places sprang 
up, the people in them came to Newark often, to do 
their shopping and to go to church. Gradually they 
cut loose from the mother town more and more, 
and when the noisy locomotives came trundling 
over their roads of iron, finding their way into the 
peaceful country districts beyond Newark, these 
communities forgot their mother, for they needed 
her no longer. 

In these days, however, many are beginning to 
think that the smaller cities are best managed when 
they merge themselves with the larger city in their 
immediate neighborhood. It is claimed that by 
joining hands in one great city they will get better 
streets, better railroads and better street car service, 
better lighting, more parks and, in short, will be 
better off in many ways. All men and women do not 
believe this to be so, and it may be a very long time 
indeed before all the towns founded by men from 
Newark return to the present city. If Newark 
wishes them to come back, she must struggle to 
make herself so well governed and so attractive in 
every way that they will be glad to come. 



SOME OF THE LEADING EVENTS 

IN THE 

HISTORY OF NEWARK 



SOME OF THE LEADING EVENTS 
IN THE HISTORY OF NEWARK 

1664, March. Philip Carteret commissioned in 
England the Governor of New Jersey, which was 
part of the grant made by Charles of England to 
James, Duke of York and Albany. 

1666, May. Settlers landed at Newark. 

1668, May 20. Meeting of commissioners of 
Newark and of Elizabethtown at "Divident Hill" 
to fix the boundary between settlements. 

1676. First schoolmaster appointed — John 
Catlin — "to do his faithful, honest and true 
endeavor to teach * * * the reading and 
writing of English and also Arethmetick if they 
desire it; as much as they are capable to learn and 
he capable to teach them." 

1680, June 30. Proceedings of the town meet- 
ing: "Agreed, that the town is willing Samuel 
Whitehead should come and inhabit among us, 
provided he will supply the town with shoes." 

1698, April 18. "Tan yard" established by 
Azariah Crane. 



134 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

1733. Col. Ogden saved his wheat on Sunday, 
was publicly censured by the Presbyterian church, 
and as a result Trinity Episcopal church was 
founded. 

1747. College of New Jersey, afterwards Prince- 
ton, started at Elizabethtown. but removed to 
Newark the same year. It remained here about 
nine years when it was removed to Princeton. 

1765. Direct land route to Xew York estab- 
lished. Known as Plank Road. 

1774. Essex County holds first meeting in all 
Xew Jersey to protest against tyrannies of Crown 
and to arrange for selection of delegates to first 
Congress. 

1775. March 10. Newark Academy founded. 
At a regular meeting of the Committee of the 
Academy. December. 1794, it was "Resolved, that 
Rev. Mr. Ogden be empowered to sell the negro 
man James, given by Mr. Watts as a donation to 
the Academy for as much money as he will sell for." 

1776. Nov. 2S. Washington departed from 
Newark, Cornwallis moved in. remained until 
December 1, and then followed Washington, leaving 
a guard in Newark. 

1780. June 23. Battle of Springfield. In those 



LEADING EVENTS. 135 

days Springfield had not been set off from Newark 
and Elizabethtown. 

1792. Talleyrand, Charles Maurice, Prince de 
Talleyrand-Perigord, and Bishop of Autun, when 
driven from Europe, spent some time in Newark. 

1795. "Moral epidemic." "Voluntary Associa- 
tion of the people of Newark to observe the 
Sabbath" formed. 

1796. "Centinel of Freedom" established. It 
denounced slavery, New Jersey being a slave state. 

1 801. Jewelry was manufactured by Epaphras 
Hinsdale. 

1804. Earliest manufacture of carriages in 
Newark — Stephen Wheeler, Cyrus Beach, Caleb 
Carter, Robert B. Campfield. 

1804, May 4. Newark Banking and Insurance 
Co., established. "The parent bank of Newark." 
First president, Judge Elisha Boudinot. 

1 810. Hatting trade established by William 
Rankin. 

1814. First Sunday School in State opened in 
First Presbyterian Church. 

1824. St. John's, the parent Catholic church in 
Newark, erected. 



136 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

1825. Chair making was quite extensively 
carried on by David Ailing. 

1826. Seth Boyden discovers process of making 
malleable iron. 

1832, Morris Canal completed. 

1833, Nov. 30. Henry Clay in Newark. 

1834, Sept. 15. New Jersey Railroad and Trans- 
portation Company opens first railroad between 
Newark and Jersey City. 

1836, April. Newark becomes a city. 
1836. Streets lighted with oil lamps. 
1836. Present school system established. 
1843. First public schoolhouse erected. 

1845, May. Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co. 
organized in Newark. 

1846. Newark Library Association incorporated. 

1846, Dec. 26. Newark Gas Light Co. 
commenced the manufacture of gas, and the city 
streets were lighted with it. 

1848-9. Many German political fugitives, fol- 
lowing the collapse of the Revolution of the Grand 
Duchy of Baden, found homes in Newark. 

1852. Louis Kossuth, Hungarian patriot, in 
Newark. 



LEADING EVENTS. 137 

1 86 1, Feb. 21. Abraham Lincoln in Newark. 

1 861, May 3. First Brigade leaves for Washing- 
ton. 

1866, May 17. Two hundredth anniversary of 
founding of Newark celebrated. 

1868, March 17. Newark Board of Trade 
founded. 

1 87 1. Woodside annexed to Newark. 

1872. Newark Industrial Exhibition. 

1875. Prudential Insurance Company estab- 
lished. 

1882. First public arc lamps introduced. 
1882. Free Drawing School established. 
1885. Newark Technical School established. 

1885. County Park system established. 

1886. Old Burying Ground given over for 
public purposes, and bones of settlers removed to 
Fairmount Cemetery, in this and years immediately 
following. 

1888. Free Public Library incorporated. 

1889. Dedication of Newark Aqueduct property 
for public park at Branch Brook. 

1892. First of new Prudential buildings 
erected. 



138 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

1896. Movement for purification of Passaic 
River espoused by Newark Board of Trade. 

1898, May 2. First Regiment, New Jersey 
Volunteers for Spanish American War leave 
Newark for Sea Girt. Return home Sept. 26. 

1905. Vailsburg annexed to Newark. 

1907. New City Hall and new Court House 
both completed. 

1907. First City Playgrounds. 

1907. Small Board of Education established. 

1908. New Mutual Benefit Life Insurance 
Company building completed. 



HISTORIC SPOTS 
IN NEWARK 



HISTORIC SPOTS IN NEWARK 

Academy, Newark; Sites of. First building- 
erected prior to 1775, at the southern end of Wash- 
ington Park, nearly opposite the end of Halsey 
street. Destroyed by the British soldiers on the 
night of January 25, 1780. Never rebuilt. Next 
Academy building erected on the north corner of 
Broad and Academy streets, in 1792. Property 
sold to the United States Government in 1855 for 
Post Office. Property at corner of High and 
William streets purchased for Academy purposes 
in 1857. 

Ailing house; Site of. Residence of David 
Ailing built by him about 1790, on Broad street 
opposite William, on the site of the present Kremlin 
building. Chateaubriand and Talleyrand lived 
there for a time, about 1795. Talleyrand worked 
upon his "Genius of Christianity" while there. 

Bank, first in Newark ; Site of. National Newark 
Banking Company, one of the two pioneer banking 
institutions in the State, chartered in 1804, located 



i 4 2 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

on the north corner of Bank and Broad streets a 
year later. 

Boudinot house. On Park place about a 
hundred yards south of East Park street. The 
remodeled building was still standing in 1908. 
Lafayette was entertained there in September, 1824, 
a room having been especially furnished for his 
entertainment, although he remained here but a few 
hours, coming from Jersey City and passing the 
night in Elizabeth. Immediately west of the 
Boudinot house, in Military Park, a pavilion had 
been erected where Lafayette received the people, 
who had come from all parts of the State to do him 
honor. 

Boyden, Seth; Site of his foundry and workshop. 
It was in the rear of 30 Orange street, on the east 
side of Broad. Here he discovered the process by 
which malleable iron is made, on July 4, 1826, 
the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. 

Bridge, first across Passaic; Site of. It stood 
about where the present Bridge street bridge now 
is. It was built before the War for Independence. 

Camp homestead; Site of. Residence of Capt. 
Nathaniel Camp before and during War for Inde- 
pendence. Stood at the corner of Broad and Camp 



HISTORIC SPOTS. 143 

streets. Washington was entertained there several 
times when he visited Newark during the encamp- 
ments at Morristown. 

"Cedars," The; Site of. The hermit-like home of 
Henry William Herbert, an author. His home was 
located in the woods on the bank of the Passaic, 
close to what is still called the Gully Road, and 
within the confines of what is now known as Mt. 
Pleasant Cemetery. Herbert was known in litera- 
ture as "Frank Forester," and was the first writer 
of importance in this country on sports and out-door 
subjects. He also wrote on French and English 
history and made some excellent translations from 
the works of the elder Dumas and Eugene Sue. He 
died in 1858, and was buried in Mt. Pleasant 
Cemetery. 

Centre street; Foot of. Here, on the river front, 
was located one of the two hospitals for soldiers 
during the Civil War. There was another soldiers' 
hospital further down the river bank, not far from 
the Market street bridge. The first railroad running 
from Newark to Jersey City crossed the Passaic 
river at Centre street. 

City Hotel ; Site of. Structure occupied for many 
years as the City Hall, on the north corner of Broad 
and William streets, was previously the City, or 



144 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

Thompson's Hotel. Once you could take a rail- 
road train from its doors, and ride up Broad, down 
Market and thus on to Jersey City. 

Cockloft Hall. On the northeast corner of 
Gouverneur street and Mt. Pleasant avenue. Part 
of the structure was standing during the War for 
Independence and tradition has it that Washington 
was entertained there when he was just beginning 
his "Flight through the Jerseys" in the late fall of 
1776. Quite early in the last century the house, 
then owned by Gouverneur Kemble, was a frequent 
rendezvous of the famous American author, 
Washington Irving, and John Paulding and other 
young literary men of New York, who came "out 
to the country" to find quiet and change, and found 
them there. 

College of New Jersey, now Princeton, founded 
in Elizabethtown in 1757 and removed to Newark 
the same year. It is believed that most of the college 
exercises were held in what was then the Court 
House, and which stood on the eastern edge of the 
Old Burying Ground, perhaps a little south of 
Branford place. This was the same building in 
which the patriots of Essex County met in 1774 to 
protest against the King's tyranny and to call on 
Governor Franklin to select delegates to the first 



HISTORIC SPOTS. 145 

Continental Congress, that was soon to meet. 

Court House and Jail ; Site of. The first jail stood 
on Broad street on the eastern edge of the Old Bury- 
ing Ground not far from the first Court House. In 
1 810 a new Court House and jail, a three story stone 
structure with cells in the cellar, was built at the 
corner of Walnut and Broad streets, where Grace 
Episcopal Church now stands. It was burned down 
in 1835. 

Eagle Tavern; Site of. On Broad street, west 
side, about a hundred yards north of William. It 
is common belief that Washington made his head- 
quarters there during the five days that he was in 
Newark in November 1776. There is no proof of 
this, however. 

Early settlers; Monument to. In Fairmount 
Cemetery. Beneath it the bones of many of the first 
settlers, which were removed from the Old Burying 
Ground in the late eighties of the last century, now 
rest. Early in the present century more bones of 
the town's forefathers were uncovered during 
excavation for cellars and foundations of new build- 
ings ; but they were treated with scant ceremony and 
were not always given decent interment. 

First Church ; Site of. Original meeting house 
of settlers stood on eastern edge of Old Burying 



146 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

Ground fronting on what is now Broad street, a 
little north of Branford place. Its present successor, 
the First Presbyterian Church, was begun in 1787 
and finished in 1791. 

"Four Corners." The founders started their village 
at the point where Market and Broad streets now 
cross. The settlers came from four towns in 
Connecticut and those from each town took a 
corner from which to start laying out their home 
lots. 

Frog pond; Site of. A small body of water 
located at the southwest corner of Market and Broad 
streets, when the settlers came. It was not entirely 
obliterated for upwards of a century. 

Iron foundry; Site of. First iron foundry in 
Newark was on the site of the Second Presbyterian 
Church, on the north corner of James and Wash- 
ington streets. 

Kearny homestead. House where Major General 
Philip Kearny spent most of his babyhood and 
early years. Stands on east side of Belleville avenue, 
opposite Kearny street. When young Kearny 
lived in it early in the last century the estate ex- 
tended all the way to the river and for a considerable 
distance up and down the banks. 

Library Hall ; Site of. Stood on north side of 



HISTORIC SPOTS. 147 



Market street. Bamberger's store occupies part of 
the site. Many prominent actors, musicians and 
lecturers appeared there during the sixties, seventies 
and eighties of the last century. 

Machinery Hall. On corner of Marshall and 
Washington streets. Was built for Newark's great 
industrial exhibition which was held in 1872. 
General Grant attended it. 

Market place; Site of. What is now Washington 
Park was set aside as a market place by the settlers 
in 1676. 

Market street. That part of it which lies between 
the Court House and the Pennsylvania railroad was 
probably an Indian footpath, following quite 
closely a bank of the stream that ran down the hill- 
side into the marshes. 

Mill, first grist ; Site of. It stood on the bank of 
a stream, known as "Mill Brook," near the north 
corner of High and Clay streets. 

Military Hall. At 199, 201 Market street, three 
upper floors. Here recruits were sometimes drilled 
during the Civil War, and according to one 
tradition, during the Mexican war also. 

Old Burying Ground; Site of. Was located 
immediately back of the first church, extended to 



148 A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

what is now Halsey street, nearly to what is now 
William street on the south, and to the ponds which 
were close to Market street on the north. Other 
historic burying grounds are that of the present 
First Presbyterian Church, situated at the south 
side and on the rear; and that of Trinity Church 
in Rector street. 

Park House; Site of. On the east side of Park 
place opposite southern end of Military Park. Many 
eminent persons stopped there during the last 
century. Henry Clay made an address from the 
steps, November 20, 1833. 

Parsonage; Site of. Home of several ministers 
of the First Church in the eighteenth century. 
Located at corner of Broad and William streets, a 
little south of William street and setting back 
perhaps fifty feet from Broad. Aaron Burr, third 
vice-president of the United States, and son of the 
Rev. Aaron Burr, second president of the College of 
New Jersey, was born there in 1756. During War 
for Independence guards were sometimes posted near 
the door to warn the pastor, Rev. Dr. Macwhorter, 
of approach of British who sought to capture him. 

Quarries ; Site of. The stone quarries of Newark 
which were worked for nearly, if not quite, two 
hundred years, were principally located along and 



HISTORIC SPOTS. 149 

near the line of Clifton avenue; and up and down 
Bloomfield avenue in the neighborhood of Clifton 
avenue. 

School, first town (pay) ; Site of. Stood on the 
south side of Market street, about fifty yards east 
of Halsey street. 

School, first free school for apprentices, and one 
of the first attempts in the entire country to establish 
what are now known as trade schools, was started 
by Moses Combs, shoe manufacturer, on Market 
street, south side, near Plane street. 

Stone bridge. Bridge over "Mill Brook," a little 
south of where Broad street and Belleville avenue 
join. 

Tablet, laid on July 4, 1826, in commemoration 
of the signing of the Declaration of Independence 
at lower end of Military Park. Recently restored 
and now protected with a railing. It was proposed 
at the time of its dedication to raise a monument on 
this stone, to be called the "Semi-Centennial Monu- 
ment." It would have cost a large sum of money 
had it been erected as planned. No funds were ever 
raised. 

Tannery; Site of first. On the south side of 
Market street, a hundred yards or so below what is 
now the Court House plaza. The water used there 



ISO A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 

came from the stream that fed the Watering Place. 

Tavern, Rising Sun; Site of. On bluff over- 
looking river, near where Public Service Corpora- 
tion power house now stands, a little above Market 
street bridge. St. John's Lodge of Free Masons 
held some of its meetings there as early as 1761. 

Town pump; Site of. Stood for over a century 
and a half in the centre of the open space at the four 
corners of Market and Broad streets. 

Training ground ; Site of. Military Park was set 
aside by the settlers as a training ground for all the 
able-bodied men of the town, who on appointed days 
assembled there to go through military drills, to 
have their weapons inspected, and to improve their 
marksmanship, so as to be prepared for any attack 
of the Indians. 

Trinity Church. The second church congrega- 
tion to be established in Newark. Present edifice 
stands on site of original building erected in 1743- 
44. In the first building many of the patriots 
wounded in the battle of Long Island in 1776, were 
cared for, the edifice being converted into a hospital. 
The picture illustrating this episode, given in this 
book, shows the original church as it is depicted in 
an old drawing. Washington, Lord Stirling and 
other patriot leaders attended service in the original 



HISTORIC SPOTS. 151 

edifice, and the base of the present church spire is 
part of the first structure. The corner stone for 
the present church was laid in May, 1809. 

Watering place; Site of. The founders set aside 
a small plot of land at the point where Springfield 
avenue and Market street now come together, as a 
place to water cattle and horses. 



INDEX 



Academy, burned, 55 ; 
founded, 132; sites, 66, 

139; negro donated 132 

Ailing, David 134, 139 

Anderson, Major, in Newark 112 
Antietam, Newark troops at.. 115 

Aqueducts 118,119,135 

Arc lamps 123,135 

Banks, 133, 139; first bank 

of Newark 133, *39 

Beach, Cyrus, carriage maker 133 
Belleville pumping station... 119 
Berckel, Peter Van, in New- 
ark 85 

Bergen, First Dutch Church 29 
Bergen Point, Dutch village 6 
Blennerhassett in Newark... 84 
Board of Education, estab- 
lished, 103; small board 

established 136 

Board of Trade, founded.... 135 
Boots and shoes 36, 76, 77, 78, 131 
Boudinot, Elisha, 133, 140; 

entertained Lafayette 140 

Boyden, Seth, illustration, 62; 

life of, 80, 81, 82; malleable 

iron, 134; statue, 80; site 

of foundry and workshop. 140 

Brainerd, David. Missionary 

to Indians 47, 48 

Branford, Connecticut. Home 

of early settlers 8 

Breweries 82 

Bridge across Passaic 140 

Bridge across Mill Brook.... 147 

British raid on Newark 66 

Broad Street, 1845. Illus- 
tration 10 1 

Broad and Market Streets; 
see Four Corners. 

Brooks and streams 20, 21 

Burlington, N. J., 26; Indian 
reservation, 26; settlers' 

choice 8 

"Burning Day." Illustration 31 
Burr, Rev. Aaron and Prince- 
ton College, 46, 47; resi- 
dence 146 

Burr, Colonel Aaron, birth- 
place, 72; Blennerhassett, 
84, 85 ; residence 146 



Burying ground, see Old 
Burying ground. 

Burying grounds 145, 146 

See also Mt. Pleasant Cem- 
etery, Fairmount Cemetery, 
Old Burying Ground. 
Business, 36, 37, 75-84, 93, 
96, 97, 112, 113, 120, 122, 
124, 125. See also Indus- 
tries and Manufactures. 
Camp, Nathaniel; residence.. 140 
Camp Frelinghuysen. . . . 114, 115 
Campfield, Robert B., carriage 

maker 133 

Canals, see Morris Canal 

and Ship Canal. 
Candles used for lighting. . . 121 
Carriage manufacture.... 82, 133 

Cars, Horse cars 117 

Carter, Caleb, carriage maker. 133 
Carteret, Philip, Governor of 
N. J., 131; payment to In- 
dians, 18; terms with set- 
tlers 3, 16 

Catlin, John, first school- 
master 38, 131 

"Cedars," The; site of 141 

Centre Street, foot of. Site 
for hospitals in Civil War 141 

Chair making 134 

Chandler's hotel, first stop of 

railroad . 92 

Charter revision necessary... 125 
Chateaubriand in Newark... 139 

Children in the colony 39 

Church going, illustration.... 27 
Churches, 26, 28, 29, 48, 49, 

53, 66, 70, 72, 76, 133 

Cider making 41 

City beautiful 128 

City Hall, old, 92, 141; 

new 136 

City hotel, old city hall.. 92, 141 

Civil war 108-117 

Clay, Henry, in Newark, 85, 

134, 146 
Clothing made by settlers... 35 
Coach making, see Carriage 
manufacture. 

Cockloft Hall 105, 106, 142 

"Cocklofts," The 106 



154 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 



College of New Jersey, see 

Princeton University. 
Combs, Moses. First manu- 
facturer, 76, 77; freeing of 
slave, 77; southern trad- 
er, 77, 80; trade school.. 147 

Connecticut charter 44 

Constable Hook settlement.. 16 
Constables, see Police. 
Convention in New Bruns- 
wick 50, 52 

Cornwallis in Newark 132 

County Park system, see Parks. 
Court House, old, 50, 111, 
112, 142, 143; illustration, 

5i; new 136 

Crane, Azariah 131 

Delaware settlements 3 

Delegates to First Congress, 

132, 142 
Dickinson, Rev. Jonathan and 

the College of New Jersey 46 
"Divident Hill." Boundary 

line 131 

Docks on meadows 127 

Drawing School, see Free 

Drawing School. 
Dutch Church of Bergen.... 29 
Dutch rule in New Jersey.. 7 

Dutch settlements 4, 6 

Dutch West India Company 6 

Dye making by settlers 35 

Dynamo-electric machines 

first made in Newark 123 

Eagle Tavern, site of 143 

Edge Pillocks, Indians 26 

Edison in Newark 122 

Edsall, Samuel. English 

trader 16 

Education, see Schools, 

Schoolmaster, John Catlin. 

Education, Board of, see 

Board of Education. 
Electric lamps, made by 

Edison and Weston 123 

Electric lighting in New- 
ark 122, 123 

Electricity. Experiments by 
Franklin and Seth Boyden, 
81; first electric works. 
122, 123. See also Weston, 
Edward and Edison in 
Newark. 

Elizabethtown 3, 7, 16 

Ellsworth, Colonel, in New- 
ark 109 

Essex County. Price paid to 
Indians, 16; protest against 

tyranny 132 

Essex County Parks, see 
Parks in 1907. 



Evelyn's letter about New 

Jersey... i 3 , 14, 15 

Exchange of commodities in 

early days 37 

Factories in 1836 93 

Farm in Mulberry Street, 

1815 73 

Fire department, History. .97-100 
Fire engines, see Fire de- 
partment. 
Fires of 1836 and 1845.. 99, 100 
First Brigade leaves for 

Washington 135 

"First Church," see First 

Presbyterian Church. 
First Dutch church of Bergen 29 
First New Jersey Volunteers 

in Spanish-American War. 136 
First Presbyterian Church, 
26, 28, 70, 72, 76, 133, 143, 
144; burying ground, 146; 

parsonage 146 

Flour mills 79 

Forester, Frank, see Herbert, 
Henry William. 

Founders of Newark 3 

"Four Corners." Illustration, 
59; in 1800, 68; site of 144 

"Four texts" 22, 90 

Franklin, Benjamin. The kite 

and electricity 81 

Franklin, Governor, refusal 

to call session of legislature So 
Free drawing school estab- 
lished 135 

Free Public Library estab- 
lished 104, 135 

Frelinghuysen, Camp, see 
Camp Frelinghuysen. 

Frog pond 144 

Gas lighting in 1847 121 

Genius of Christianity, writ- 
ten by Talleyrand in New- 
ark 139 

German immigration 94, 95, 96, 134 
Gifford, Archer, tavern; lo- 
cation, 68; travelers from 
South, 69; stage coach 
starting place, 70; guest 

held over Sunday 75 

Gouverneur Street, residence 

of Gouverneur Kemble.... 105 
Grant, U. S. In Newark 85, 14s 
Grant of New Jersey made 

by King Charles... 131 

Great Notch, Montclair, res- 
ervoir 119 

Greater Newark 128, 129 

Guilford, Conn., home of 

settlers 8 

Gully Road 106 



INDEX. 



155 



Hackensack farms, 6; In- 
dian village 25 

Hackensack river, farms, 6; 

deepening river 127 

Halsey, William. First 

mayor 90 

Hamilton, Alexander. Test 

of Pequannock water 120 

Hard times of 1837 96, 97 

Hat making 82, 133 

Hedden, Joseph, 55-58; illus- 
tration 57 

Herbert, Henry William, 
"Frank Forester." Resi- 
dence 106, 141 

Hessians in the Revolution 55, 56 
High school, established.... 103 

High Street in 1800 72 

Hinsdale, Epaphras estab- 
lished jewelry trade 133 

Hoboken. Farms, 6; price 

paid to Indians 7 

Home lots. Map, 17; site of 144 
Horse cars, see Cars. 
Hospitals in war time, 115, 

141, 142, 148 
Houses. Built by settlers, 

34, 35; in 1845 and 1907.. 97 
Hudson, Henry, in Newark 

Bay. Illustration 5 

"Hunters and the Hounds." 

Tavern 68, 69, 70, 75 

Incandescent light made in 

Newark 122, 123 

"Indian Ann" 26 

Indian paths 4, 145 

Indians. First inhabitants, 
3, 4; barter with settlers, 
6; Lenni Lenape, 25, 26; 
King Philip's War, 41-45, 
49; sales of land to settlers, 

16, 18, 19 
Industrial exhibition.... 135, 145 
Industries, 75-84, 93. 112, 
113, 120, 124, 125. See 
also Business and Manufac- 
tures. 

Irish immigrants 94, 95 

Iron foundries 79, 140, 144 

Iron industry 79, 80, 140 

Iron, malleable; discovered by 

Seth Boyden 134, 140 

Irving, Washington; at 

"Cockloft Hall".. 105, 106, 142 

Jail, 143; in 1800 70 

Jersey City. Farms, 6; price 

paid to Indians 7 

Jewelry manufacture 82, 133 

Kearny, General Philip, in 
Civil War, 115; home, 105, 

116, 117, 144 



Kearny Castle 105, 116, 117 

Kearny homestead on Belle- 
ville Avenue, Newark 116, 144 
Kemble, Gouverneur. Owner 

of "Cockloft Hall" 105, 106, 142 
King Fhilip's War, 41, 42, 43, 49 
Kossuth, Louis, in Newark... 85 
Lafayette in Newark, 85; at 

Boudinot house 140 

Land values in 1666, and in 

1904 16, 18 

Lanterns in old days 121 

Leather industry. . 76, 78, 82, 120 
Lee, General Charles; ordered 
to Newark by Washington, 

T ,• 54. 55 

Lenni Lenape Indians.... 25, 26 
Library, see Free Public Li- 
brary. 
Library Association, see New- 
ark Library Association. 
Library Hall; site of... 144, 145 
Lighting, 120, 121, 122, 134; 

electric 122, 123 

Lincoln, President Abraham, 
in Newark.... 109-111, 85, 135 

Little Falls. Farms 6 

"Lower Green," see Military 
Park. 

Machinery Hall 145 

Macwhorter, Rev. Alexander, 
pastor of the First Church, 

52, 70, 146 
Mail Coach stopped on Sunday 

in 1800 74 

Malleable iron, see Iron, 

malleable. 
Manhattan, Indian name 6; 

English capture 7 

Manufactures, 120, 124, 125. 
See also Industries. 

Market, established 38, 145 

Market Street 145 

Marshes, drainage 33 

Mayflower, attempt to reach 

Delaware 12, 13 

Meadow improvement, 32, 33, 

126, 127, 128 
Milford, Connecticut. Home 

of early settlers 8 

"Military Common," see Mili- 
tary Park. 

Military Hall, site of 145 

Military officers of the colon- 
ists . . . 24 

Military Park, 49; illustration, 
107; training ground,' 114, 148 

Mill Brook 20, 79, 145 

Mills along Mill Brook 79, 145 

Minute men 56, 58 



56 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK. 



Monument in Fairmount Cem- 
etery 32, 143 

"Moral epidemic," and Sun- 
day observance 133 

Morris and Essex Railroad, 
meeting to organize the 

road 92 

Morris Canal completed. .84, 134 
Morristown in the Revolution 55 
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, 

106, 117 
Mulberry Street in 1815.... 73 
Mutual Benefit Life Insur- 
ance Co 134, 136 

New Amsterdam, Dutch name 

for New York 6 

New Brunswick, Convention, 

50, 52 
New Haven, Connecticut. 

Home of early settlers.... 8 
New Jersey, English owner- 
ship, 7; Dutch rule, 7; a 

slave state 133 

New Jersey Railroad and 
Transportation Company, 
see Railroads. 
New York City and Indian 

trade 6 

Newark Academy, see Acad- 
emy. 
Newark and the Civil War, 

ic8, 111-115; regiments.... 113 
Newark as a city, 90, 134; 

as a town 89, 90 

Newark Banking and Insur- 
ance Co., established. . 133, 139 
Newark Bay. Illustration... 5 
Newark, boundaries in 1800, 65, 66 
Newark from the Passaic, il- 
lustration 88 

Newark _ Gas Light Company, 

established 134 

Newark, government, 23, 24, 

25, 89, 90, 124, 125 

Newark home lots, map 17 

Newark in 1800, map 67 

Newark^ Library Association, 

established ■ 104, 134 

Newark, origin of name 28 

Newark, payment for land... 18 
Newark settlement in 1666.. 3 

Newark streets in 1800 72 

Newark, 200th anniversary.. 135 
Number Four in connection 

with Newark 89, 90 

Ogden, Colonel Josiah; works 

on Sunday 48, 49, 132 

Old Burying ground started, 
32; bones removed, 135, 
143; site of 145. 146 



Orange and Newark Horse 
Car Company, built first 

horse car line 117 

Orange Mountains, boundary 
of tract bought from In- 
dians 19 

Oraton, Indian chief at Hack- 

ensack 25 

Park House, site of 146 

Parks in 1907 125 

Parsonage, site of 146 

Passaic river, 83, 84, 104, 
105; deepening, 127; puri- 
fication 136 

Passaic valley, Farms 6 

Patents issued to Newarkers 122 

Paterson, Farms 6 

Paulding, John; visitor at 

"Cockloft Hall" 106, 142 

Paulus Hook, old name for 

Jersey City 56 

Pequannock Valley, 119; 

water supply 119, 120 

Perro, Indian owner of land 

bought by settlers 18 

Philadelphia, a village in 1665 7 
Philip, King. War. .41, 42, 43, 49 
Pierson, Abraham. First 

President of Yale 46 

Pierson, Rev. Abraham, pas- 
tor of the First Church, 23, 46 
Plank road, direct land route 

to New York 132 

Flaygrou.nds in modern New- 
ark 136 

Plymouth, Mass. settlements.. 11 
Police, military officers, 24; 
establishment of the force 90 

Ponds of Newark 20 

Population in 1800, 64; in 
past 100 years, 65, 78; in 
1837, 96; from i860 to 

1865, 97; in 1908 124 

Post Office in 1800, 66; in 

1855, 139; in 1907 125 

Power plants, development... 80 
Price paid for land by set- 
tlers 18 

Princeton, Battle of 55 

Princeton University, 46, 47, 

48, 132, 142 

Printing presses, first 83 

Frudential Insurance Co.... 135 
Public Library, see Free Pub- 
lic Library. 
Pump at Broad and Market 

Streets 6? 

Puritan statue in Fairmount 

Cemetery. Illustration. ... 2 
Puritans, 8, 15, 23; map of 
settlements, 9; landing. .. 10-13 



INDEX. 



157 



Quarries of brownstone, 78, 

79, 146 
Railroads, History, 91, 92, 93, 

104, 141, 142 
Rankin, William, hatting trade 133 
Recruits drilled in Military- 
Hall 145 

Reservoirs 118, 119 

Resolutions supporting Con- 
gress ii* 

Revolutionary War 50-58 

Rising Sun Tavern 148 

Roads in and out of Newark, 

39,40 
Rutherford's homestead, lo- 
cation 117 

Sabbath observance, see Sun- 
day observance. 

Saddlery manufacture 82 

St. John's Catholic Church, 

erected 1 33 

St. John's Lodge of Free- 
masons 148 

Salmagundi Papers written by 

Irving at "Cockloft Hall" 106 
Saw mills in early Newark. . 79 
Scheyichbi, Indian name of 

New Jersey 25 

Schoolhouse, first one erected, 

134, 147 
Schoolmaster, John Catlin... 131 
Schools, 37, 100, 102, 103, 
104, 134, 147; in 1800, 76; 

industrial training 77, 124 

Scott, Winfield, carriage 

stopped on Sunday 74 

Semi-Centennial monument.. 147 
Sentinel of Freedom estab- 
lished 133 

Settlement boundaries 131 

Settlement of Newark, 1666, 3, 8 
Settlements from Maine to 

the Delaware, 1666, map... 9 
Settlers landed in Newark, 
131; bones removed from 

old burying ground 143 

Shenoctos, Indian Chief.... iq 

Ship canal 127, 128 

Ships and shipping. .83, 127, 128 
Shoe making.. 36, 76, 77, 78, 131 

"Shoemaker map" 78 

Small Board of Education, 

see Board of Education. 
Social life in early Newark 38 
Soldiers' Home in Kearny.. 117 

Southern trade 69, 112, 113 

Spanish-American war 136 

Spinning and weaving in old 
times 35 



Springfield, battle of 56,132 

Stage line between Newark 
and New York, 69, 93; il- 

lustration 7 1 

Staten Island, bought by 
"West India Company," 6; 
price paid to Indians.... 7 
Steam power, introduction... 83 

Stirling; Lord 148 

Stock indicator invented by 

Edison 122 

Stone bridge over Mill Brook 147 
Stores, early days, 37; in 
1800, 70; first one in up- 
per section 79 

Strawberry growing 81 

Street lighting. . 120, 121, 122, 134 

Street paving 125 

Subways projected 126 

Suffrage in olden days, 23, 

24; in 1830 89 

Summer schools, first ones in 

country 103 

Sunday observance in olden 

days 74, 75, *33 

Sunday School; first in state 133 
Tablet in commemoration of 
signing of Declaration of 

Independence M7 

Talleyrand in Newark, 84, 

133, 139 
Tan yard, see Tanneries. 
Tanneries, 38, 76, 78, 82, 

131, 147 
Tavern of Archer Gifford, see 

Gifford, Archer. 
Tavern, Rising Sun; site of.. 148 
Technical School, established. 135 
Telegraph instruments made 

in Newark 122 

Telephone invented by Edi- 
son in Newark 122, 123 

Thanksgiving in olden times, 

33; hymn ...33, 34 

Thompson's hotel, see City 

hotel 141 

Tool making 80 

Town business 89, 90 

Town lots 39 

Town meetings 23, 24, 25, 89 

Town officers in olden times, 

23, 24, 2^ 

Town pump, site of 148 

Trade School, One of the 

first in the country 147 

Trade with the South, see 

Southern trade. 
Training ground, Site of.... 148 

Transportation 125 

Travelers through Newark ... 69 



158 



A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWARK 



Treat, Robert, 3, 7, 8, 16, 23, 

24, 41, 42, 43, 44 

Trees found here by the set- 
tlers 21 

Trenton, Battle of, 55; found- 
ing of city 7 

Trinity Episcopal Church, 48, 
49, 132, 148; illustration, 
53; in 1800, 66; burying 
ground, 146; hospital dur- 
ing war 148 

Trolley lines 125 

Trunk making 82 

Tunnels, North or Hudson 
River 126 

Vailsburg annexed 136 

Voting in olden days, 23, 24; 
in 1830 89 

War of the Revolution, see 
Revolutionary War. 

Ward, John, procured _ am- 
munition for King Philip's 
War 49, 50 

Wards of the city 89, 90 



Washington in Newark, 52, 
54, 55. 132, 141, 142, 143, 
148; "Flight through the 

Jerseys" 142 

Washington Park in 1800 66 

Watchung mountains, old 
name for Orange Moun- 
tains i 9 

Water power in olden times 83 

Water supply 118, 119, 120 

Watering places, Site of 149 

Waterways 20 

Wealth of settlers 19 

Wells used in old days 118 

Weston, Edward, and electric 

light 123 

Whaling ships fitted out 84 

Wheeler, Stephen, carriage 

maker 133 

Whitehead, Samuel, shoe- 
maker for settlers 131 

Winnocksop, Indian chief... 19 
Woodside annexed 135 

















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